playstation network Hackers Threaten Christmas Takedown of PlayStation Network, Xbox Live

[Reefa]

An anonymous group of hackers known as the Phantom Squad have threatened to disrupt Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live services around the Christmas holiday.

 

The group recently posted a message on Twitter announcing their intentions, and also said that they plan on keeping both services offline for an entire week. At the moment, the group appears to include only five members and to be working toward making a name for itself by targeting various websites and services to prove it is effective, including Reddit and gaming platforms.

 

We are going to shut down Xbox live and PSN this year on christmas. And we are going to keep them down for one week straight #DramaAlert

— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 9, 2015

 

In a series of subsequent tweets, the group revealed that they plan on attacking the two gaming platforms because “cyber security does not exist.” Phantom Squad also says that both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live are vulnerable to attacks, and even claim to have managed to take down the latter over the weekend. On Sunday, they posted a tweet linking to a screenshot deemed to be proof of their achievement.

 

While it's unconfirmed if the outage was a result of attacks on its systems, Microsoft did ackowledge issues with it's plaform on Saturday afternoon. "We are currently investigating issues w/ signing in, managing friends, & matchmaking. Updates here while we work: http://xbx.lv/XBLstus," Microsoft's XBox Support Twitter account tweeted.

 

Proof https://t.co/AfH2WOmfqE We can do it again if you like RT This for @PlayStation and @Xbox To stay online email me [email protected]

— PhantomSquad (@PhantomLair) December 13, 2015

 

Should the hackers be successful, the two popular gaming networks would be down for Christmas for the second year in a row, after being targeted by a group called Lizard Squad last year. The group launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against both services, taking them down for around three days.

 

Last year, controversial Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom helped end the attack by offering the hackers premium accounts on his encrypted upload service Mega, NZHerald reports. Earlier this week, he took to Twitter to express his expectation that Sony and Microsoft managed to improve the security of their services to avoid disruption this Holiday Season.

 

Warning @Sony & @Microsoft. You had 1 year to upgrade your networks. If Lizard Squad takes down PSN & XBOX this Xmas, we'll be pissed! RT!

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 14, 2015

 

It’s yet unclear whether Phantom Squad, who claim to be unrelated to Lizard Squad, will indeed launch DDoS attacks to disrupt the two gaming platforms next week. A recent tweet from the group suggests they might “turn good and no longer threaten or attack the gaming community,” provided this idea receives enough support on Twitter.

 

The group’s overall intentions are not very clear based on the messages they have published on Twitter over the past several days. While they continue to target various websites and online services, they also claim to be Gray Hat hackers and have declared war on the Islamic State group, being the second group of hackers to do so, after Anonymous launched an operation to take down social media accounts associated with the Islamic State.

 

Last year’s attack on the PSN and Xbox Live resulted in an 18-year-old being arrested in the United Kingdom, on January 16. In late December, the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) arrested 22-year-old Vincent Omari suspected to have been involved in the attacks as well, but he was released on bail and denied affiliation with Lizard Squad.

http://www.securityweek.com/hackers-threaten-christmas-takedown-playstation-network-xbox-live?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Securityweek+%28SecurityWeek+RSS+Feed%29

 

[jamesDDI]

Ouch!!! Again ...

[Reefa]

11 minutes ago, jamesDDI said:

Ouch!!! Again ...

 

 Sad fucking Toss-pots..Most of the kids i no would be devastated with no online play over xmas...So do something useful instead of you dumb fucks ..

 

[Akaneharuka]

The reason they do this because they didn't get their's Christmas  present ?

[alaindc]

Again?

They have nothing better to do?

And they call themself hackers, because they can launch DDos attack, hurting "innocents gamers"?

 

[DKT27]

Thread moved to Security and Privacy News.

[Cerberus]

These are kids who are mad because other kids found cheats they use.  So because of some cheat codes, they are going to make every pay?  The hacking group has to be kids.  Their parents need to spank their asses.   lol

[steven36]

1 hour ago, Cerberus said:

These are kids who are mad because other kids found cheats they use.  So because of some cheat codes, they are going to make every pay?  The hacking group has to be kids.  Their parents need to spank their asses.   lol

Back when i was growing up if you did something wrong you had to go apologize to the person  you done wrong too . Then get you're ass spanked and then be grounded  for how ever long they deiced  . Now days parents  think taking there cell phone away is grounding  them .

 

Most parents today don't know what there kids are doing  ..That's  why  you never can never trust  many people online many people you talk too are just kids playing grown up.  You know this for a fact even some crackers  or nothing but kids.

[Reefa]

On 16/12/2015 at 10:48 PM, Akaneharuka said:

The reason they do this because they didn't get their's Christmas  present ?

 

You do make me laugh

[vibranium]

What's the news? Did they carry out their threat?

[CODYQX4]

13 hours ago, vibranium said:

What's the news? Did they carry out their threat?

IT was fine here all day, but then again, it wasn't Christmas anywhere in the country 2 hours ago.