Business 2 CommunityPlaystation And XBox Live Hacked; Still Offline
XBox Live and PlayStation both got hacked on Christmas. A group called Lizard Squad, who describe themselves as “Next Generation Grinch”, claimed responsibility on Twitter.
According to Business Insider, threats were made that a “Christmas gift” would be delivered if Sony Pictures Entertainment, parent to Playstation, went on to release The Interview, which has been made available online as well as opening in select theaters.
Both Sony and Microsoft acknowledged the issue online.
The latest tweet from Playstation was posted on December 26.
Our engineers are continuing to work hard to resolve the network issues users have experienced today. Thanks for your continued patience!
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) December 26, 2014
Microsoft also has been updating news on their XBox Live support page.
“Are you having a tough time launching the IGN application?,” reads its status website. “We’re aware of the issue, and we’re working to provide a fix ASAP! Thanks for staying patient in the meantime. We’ll fill you in as soon as we know more.”
Deadline.com reports that the Internet-monitoring site DownDetector.com showed attacks started on Christmas Eve and eased off in the morning, only to worsen in the afternoon.
It’s likely another distributed denial-of-service attack (using a botnet to flood a site with tens of thousands of access requests, overwhelming servers), not the sort of hyper-sophisticated and in-depth attack that crippled Sony Pictures Entertainment last month.
As a demand the Lizard Squad hacking group tweeted that they won’t stop until they get 10,000 retweets.
Since the cyber attack Microsoft Xbox spokesman Sean McCarthy didn’t mention any details on whether they were ready for security breaches because of “The Interview”.
Reuters reports he said, “Of course, it’s safe to say Holiday season is always a very busy time of year for any consumer electronics company, so we work hard to ensure the stability of our infrastructure when so many consoles are activating for the first time.”
Lizard Squad is no joke. They caused the public danger in August when they forced an American Airlines jet to make an emergency landing. Apparently they were threatening John Smedley, online entertainment president for Sony.
Regarding this Christmas hacking, the group said they wouldn’t stop until they got 10,000 retweets.
On late Thursday evening Kim Dotcom, founder of the now Shut down Megaupload, tweeted: “Asking Mega management to approve 3000 @MegaPrivacy premium vouchers for @LizardMafia if they stop attacking XBOX Live and PSN immediately.”
The deal apparently worked.
He then informed followers with this message.
Wow my MEGARACER account is getting spammed with 'Thank you' messages on Xbox Live. STOP! Haha I'm happy you're happy!
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 26, 2014
So far Playstation and Xbox Live is still experiencing limited service and no other details have been made or confirmed.
[Photo Credit: Twitter]
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Playstation And XBox Live Hacked; Still Offline
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