On Christmas Day, many players around the world found they could not play their favorite games. The reason; The online services that feed these games, PSN and Xbox Live, were under a group of hackers (Lizard Squad) who took responsibility.
Today, Xbox Live seems to work but PSN is still down, although Sony has said it is working to restore it. While players expect services to be fully restored, there are many unanswered questions. Why would anyone do that? What do we not know?
The short answer is "for Lulz", as someone familiar with Internet culture would say, "for fun". But the answer is a little more complicated.
Daily Dot today published an interview with some of the Lizard Squad, the group that claims to have downloaded online services. It also seems to be behind some other attacks breaking the past.
Of course no one can confirm that the Lizard Squad downloaded PSN and Xbox Live using denial-of-service attacks. But the timing fits: the team claimed that Xbox Live and PSN would not be running for Christmas for almost a month before launching the service. It might be a coincidence, but it probably isn't. The Lizard Squad said they downloaded PSN and Xbox Live at Christmas to prove the "incompetence" of Microsoft and Sony.
«Η Microsoft και η Sony είναι γαμημένα καθυστερημένοι, και κυριολεκτικά πίθηκοι πίσω από υπολογιστές», δήλωσε ένα από τα μέλη των Lizard Squad στη The Daily Dot. “Θα είχαν καλύτερη τύχη αν προσλάμβαναν κάποιους που ήξεραν τι έκαναν. Αν πήγαιναν από τις φυλακές να προσλάβουν ανθρώπους που είχαν καταδικαστεί για πράγματα όπως αυτό θα είχαν καλύτερες πιθανότητες preventionof such attacks."
"If I worked [at Microsoft or Sony] and had a big enough budget I could stop these attacks completely," another Lizard Squad member claimed. “I would have bought more bandwidth, special equipment, and set it up properly. It is a programming skill. With one attack of this scale it could have gone for millions. But that wouldn't be a problem for Sony and Microsoft."
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In a different interview given to BBC Radio, a member of the Lizard Squad was asked if they felt ashamed after they had virtually destroyed children's Christmas.
"If I felt ashamed, I would have apologized, but I can't," was the reply. "With what we're doing, maybe companies can change for the better," he said later, explaining why Lizard Squad took down PSN and Xbox Live. He later reported that players pay so much money to subscriptions to play online, only for Microsoft and Sony to maintain these services. The Lizard Squad seem to be convinced that what they are doing is for the "common good".
"We do not care so much if we disturb the public life," said a member of the Lizard Squad. "Surely they could have a day without playing games. The attack lasted only 12 to 14 hours.
Twitter communication and interviews made by members of the Lizard Squad do not scare them once they get caught?
"There's a chance we'll get caught, and I personally don't worry about that, to be honest," said one Lizard Squad member in the BBC interview. "If they catch me, they will catch me. Maybe I'll end up in jail, or maybe I'll end up helping them businesses to become better.”
Some claim that what Lizard Squad is doing is not really hacking. But the Lizard Squad have an answer that disagrees.
"Attacks of this magnitude cannot be carried out without access to insane amounts of funding or being able to access the computers involved through hacking; you cannot carry out DDoS attacks from your home computer," they said. the Lizard Squad in the Daily Dot interview. "Not working."
Another member of the Lizard Squad does not sound so sure about his hacking skills during the interview on the BBC radio.
"They would not call me a top hacker. I know people who are much better than me. But I think I know a few things. "
