Hackers Threaten To Bring Down Xbox Live And PSN At Christmas, Again

[Grim Reaper]

http://www.ibtimes.com/hackers-threa...-again-2225702

Hackers called Phantom Squad are threatening to take the Xbox Live and PSN networks offline for a week this Christmas.

A group of hackers is threatening to take the gaming networks related to Xbox and PlayStation consoles offline for a week during Christmas, mirroring a similar attack last year that stopped gamers around the world from accessing games.

The group, which calls itself Phantom Squad, says it has already started attacking various gaming networks, including PlayStation Network (PSN), Xbox Live and Grand Theft Auto 5, and on Tuesday morning it said it had taken Reddit offline with a cyberattack. Reddit was offline for a period early Tuesday morning, but it is unclear at this stage what or who was responsible, as Phantom Squad's tweet claiming credit for the attack came after the first reports of problems from people accessing Reddit.

International Business Times has contacted Reddit to ask if it went offline as a result of a cyberattack, but at the time of publication there has been no response. According to the Reddit Status website, the problem was due to some of its databases coming "under extreme load," which could have been caused by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack -- the tool Phantom Squad is promising to use against PSN and Xbox Live servers at Christmas.

The threat to take the networks offline for a week was first made on Dec. 9:

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

Last year, a group of hackers known as Lizard Squad attacked Xbox Live and PSN on Christmas Day, rendering the services inaccessible for gamers around the world. Three members of Lizard Squad were subsequently arrested and charged with various offenses related to their hacking activities. The attacks only stopped when internet entrepreneur and well-known gamer Kim Dotcom promised to give Lizard Squad 3,000 accounts on his encrypted upload service Mega.

Dotcom has once again involved himself in the potential attacks this year, warning Sony and Microsoft that they have had one year to upgrade their systems following the Lizard Squad attacks last year, adding that he doubts he will be able to stop them again:

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status..._src=twsrc^tfw
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!

Phantom Squad has made a reference to Lizard Squad on Twitter, and said Tuesday that if one of its tweets was retweeted 100 times, it would "declare war on Lizard Squad," but so far the message has received only 41 retweets.

Besides claiming to have taken Reddit offline briefly, the group also claims to have attacked servers running GTA 5 and Black Ops 3, as well as taking Xbox Live and PSN offline for brief spells. The group published a video as proof of the attacks, showing tweets claiming responsibility for the attacks alongside images from the website Down Detector, which monitors online outages for a variety of services online.

Phantom Squad says that the group is made up of just five members and the reason it carries out the attacks is "because cybersecurity does not exist." IBT has contacted both Sony and Microsoft to assess if the companies are aware of the threats made against their respective networks, but there was no response by the time of publication.

[detective392]

Sucks for people who get consoles on Christmas or play online. Luckily these attacks have never disrupted my gameplay.

Wonder if Sony/MS can stop them this year?

[Blu-Benny]

bunch of

[sxerunner]

Punks.

[RJ MacReady]

Crap. If you set up a DMZ on your router to get an open nat like I do, you may want to change that for the time being.

[Blu Lemmy]

Well they can eat a big bag of dicks

[ariakon]

They'll probably succeed at it too, given how many people are going to be logging in for the first time.

I love how they say it's about "security," not at all about getting on the news and being "infamous" hackers. Douches...

[spectre08]

Hackers gonna hack.

I can't be too pissed at these guys though, as much as it inconveniences me. At least all they do is try to take them offline, with the intent that Sony and Microsoft will improve their security.

I'm much more concerned about malicious hackers who want to steal user data and financial data from the systems.

"Hacktivists" like these guys are an annoyance, but ultimately they serve a purpose.

[Matt S]

Looks like I'll resume my Witcher 3 single player campaign then.....but yeah, this is beyond annoying

[Captain Flint]

Bunch of punk ass losers. These kids need to find something better to do. Luckily for me, I'll be seeing the new Star Wars on Christmas day and playing Fallout 4.

[Steelmaker]

I hope they catch them all and lock them up in a Federal "pound me in the ass" prison!

[Derb]

Hey, when 1 person gets caught for over 50,000 criminal cyber hacks which include: swatting, mail fraud, bank fraud, FBI & CIA hacks & only gets a slap on the wrist.. Why not.

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by Derb

Hey, when 1 person gets caught for over 50,000 criminal cyber hacks which include: swatting, mail fraud, bank fraud, FBI & CIA hacks & only gets a slap on the wrist.. Why not.

That's the penalty when you've already hacked the judge's Ashley Madison account.

[1blufan]

Total D-Bags !!!
So no real reason for it than to gain some patting on the back from other hackers. I think they will try, for one reason only and that's if they don't succeed the hacker group will look like losers among there peers. They are already losers but will be more so than already.

[Hayabusa85]

Why bother? PSN will go down all by itself anyway.

[A Tortured Duckling]

Originally Posted by Derb

Hey, when 1 person gets caught for over 50,000 criminal cyber hacks which include: swatting, mail fraud, bank fraud, FBI & CIA hacks & only gets a slap on the wrist.. Why not.

To put it lightly; that swatting shit alone should earn the ******* who does it a one way trip to whatever correctional facility is "age appropriate" at the time of the incident. I'd rather see them beaten to within an inch of their lives...but that would be "inhumane" according to our hysterical "justice" system.

I don't care much about the rest of it, because it can all be fixed in due time, despite the fact that it's a major nuisance and just really unnecessary. Putting peoples' lives at stake by sending a SWAT team after them is a different story, and should be treated like any other premeditated attempt at having someone harmed or killed.

This whole PSN / XBL hack really isn't that big a deal. So we don't play online for a few hours, or days....does it really make a difference? I don't condone this behavior, but let's say this threat is legit - I say we make plans ahead of time and do stuff we usually don't do because our gaming gets in the way of it.

[The Apocalypse]

Well, they have to do something besides leaving their rooms. Don't give them the time of the day, they're not really worth.

[Grim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Hayabusa85

Why bother? PSN will go down all by itself anyway.

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by Blu Lemmy

Well they can eat a big bag of dicks

This term never ceases to make me giggle. I try to use it as much as humanly possible. Speaking of, you can send Bag of (Gummy) Dicks anonymously:

http://dicksbymail.com/

[Rothwilder Blu]

Originally Posted by Derb

Hey, when 1 person gets caught for over 50,000 criminal cyber hacks which include: swatting, mail fraud, bank fraud, FBI & CIA hacks & only gets a slap on the wrist.. Why not.

Hilary will always do what she wants Derb