A hackers gonna hack
On December 25th a group known as Lizard Squad hacked the online networks of both Xbox Live and Playstation Network. Shortly after, a deal was made and the attacks ceased. Here’s what happened.
The last couple of years we’ve seen hacker groups take a liking to the limelight. Anonymous is the most famous of these groups. Anonymous has taken down or hacked several online based businesses and infrastructures. Supposedly this is done to show a weakness in said company’s online infrastructure that needs improved, or in some cases exposed.
Where it started
The day’s approaching December 25th Lizard Squad – another hacker group – made threats they would take down both Xbox Live and PSN. Sure enough, they did. Many Christmases were ruined by the lack of connectivity to these gaming services.
As Twitter filled up with numerous complaints of the downed infrastructures Anonymous attempted to thwart Lizard Squads attempts but to little success.
More like Mega-Kim
Then comes Kim Dotcom, who offered $300,000 worth of Mega space to Lizard Squad to cease the attacks. Kim Dotcom is a hacker who owns a cloud storage service called Mega, that uses encryption to prevent government or third-party “spies” from invading users’ privacy. Needless to say, the attacks stopped.
After news broke about the Kim Dotcom deal an interview was blasted to the Internet by a Lizard Squad associate who claimed they had stopped the attacks and Lizard Squad did it with only 3 people via Sky News. The interviewee said this was to expose the weaknesses in the PSN and Xbox Live networks and help kids spend time with their families.
Oh the drama
Later that evening Anonymous, Dotcom, Lizard Squad, and another group making claims in helping Lizard Squad – called Finest – hashed it out during an interview session on DramaAlert.
After 15 minutes of technical jargon and lingo, both Anonymous and Lizard Squad agreed to leave each other alone, and that Finest had no part in this incident. Both relevant parties agreed that acts such as taking down PSN and Xbox Live only tarnishes the reputation of hackers worldwide and would not commit such a pointless act again.
Were you affected by the online attacks this holiday? How did it impact you and your time with family? How do you feel about all this nonsense?
