By Ben Mapp
T'was the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring... Or so we hoped. Unfortunately, a group of hacktivists collectively known as 'Lizard Squad' were in fact stirring whilst all of the gamers were snug in their beds (with visions of console-based presents from Santa dancing in their heads.)
This is the story of how Lizard Squad stole Christmas.
T'was the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring... Or so we hoped. Unfortunately, a group of hacktivists collectively known as 'Lizard Squad' were in fact stirring whilst all of the gamers were snug in their beds (with visions of console-based presents from Santa dancing in their heads.)
This is the story of how Lizard Squad stole Christmas.
So on Christmas morning, the servers at Microsoft and Sony HQ were ready and prepped for a surge of fresh-faced gamers who had just opened up their brand new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles and couldn't wait to test-drive their new presents. But, for some reason, no-one could connect to any of the online services. Lizard Squad quickly claimed responsibility via Twitter for the outages, taking pride in the fact that they had just ruined the Christmasses of several budding young gamers who were hoping to spend their day playing with their new toy.
Lizard Squad had already made a name for themselves in the world of online gaming by taking down the League of Legends servers back in August as well as taking Runescape offline on the same day. Whilst described by much of the media as 'hackers', the members of the group actually attacked the Microsoft and Sony servers through means of a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. The group has done this before throughout the year, but this time the attack was called off only after Kim Dotcom (the founder of the internet sharing base MegaUpload) traded three thousand Mega Lifetime premium accounts with the members of the group. In an interview with a couple of the members (speaking under aliases), they confessed that the main reason for the attack was to highlight the weaknesses in Sony and Microsoft's online security and to encourage them to upgrade, thus prevent future attacks. Whilst some might consider this reason actually for the betterment of online multiplayer games, Lizard Squad's actions and intentions in the past mean that their apparent goodwill might not be so transparent.
For instance, back in August, the group tweeted during the earlier DDoS attack on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network that they did not want 'Kuffar' (non-muslims) to play their video games until the bombing of ISIS in Iraq had ceased. BBC News have also reported that Lizard Squad have done dealings with the 'Guardians of Peace' (the hacking collective responsible for attacking Sony earlier this month) by handing over employee logins which were later used to expose private emails and data. The Guardians of Peace emerged in response to Sony's release of their feature film The Interview, which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco in a plot where they are coerced into assassinating the leader of North Korea. Despite the attacks, the movie has been released in limited capacity at cinemas but has instead gone onto to enjoy a wide and growing success through online distribution.
The Independent reports that one of the interviewees has since been tracked down by British police and arrested, with another being searched for. Both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services have now fully resumed their services since the Christmas Day attack, but with both systems vulnerable to DDoS attacks such as Lizard Squad's, we can expect more to happen in the future. Although two members may be removed, the group itself will likely continue its popular attacks on online services.
Lizard Squad had already made a name for themselves in the world of online gaming by taking down the League of Legends servers back in August as well as taking Runescape offline on the same day. Whilst described by much of the media as 'hackers', the members of the group actually attacked the Microsoft and Sony servers through means of a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. The group has done this before throughout the year, but this time the attack was called off only after Kim Dotcom (the founder of the internet sharing base MegaUpload) traded three thousand Mega Lifetime premium accounts with the members of the group. In an interview with a couple of the members (speaking under aliases), they confessed that the main reason for the attack was to highlight the weaknesses in Sony and Microsoft's online security and to encourage them to upgrade, thus prevent future attacks. Whilst some might consider this reason actually for the betterment of online multiplayer games, Lizard Squad's actions and intentions in the past mean that their apparent goodwill might not be so transparent.
For instance, back in August, the group tweeted during the earlier DDoS attack on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network that they did not want 'Kuffar' (non-muslims) to play their video games until the bombing of ISIS in Iraq had ceased. BBC News have also reported that Lizard Squad have done dealings with the 'Guardians of Peace' (the hacking collective responsible for attacking Sony earlier this month) by handing over employee logins which were later used to expose private emails and data. The Guardians of Peace emerged in response to Sony's release of their feature film The Interview, which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco in a plot where they are coerced into assassinating the leader of North Korea. Despite the attacks, the movie has been released in limited capacity at cinemas but has instead gone onto to enjoy a wide and growing success through online distribution.
The Independent reports that one of the interviewees has since been tracked down by British police and arrested, with another being searched for. Both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services have now fully resumed their services since the Christmas Day attack, but with both systems vulnerable to DDoS attacks such as Lizard Squad's, we can expect more to happen in the future. Although two members may be removed, the group itself will likely continue its popular attacks on online services.
We'll keep you updated.
Were you amongst the many who had received a new system off Santa? How did the sabotage of PSN and Xbox Live affect your Christmas?
Let us know below, or come find us on Facebook or Twitter!
Let us know below, or come find us on Facebook or Twitter!
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