Lizard Squad goes after Xbox Live, Twitch
As you're almost certainly aware if you're a PlayStation owner, this weekend saw an attack mounted on the PlayStation Network which took it down for a large chunk of time.
But PSN wasn't the only gaming service to get bombarded by DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks this weekend, and indeed, other attacks are continuing right now -- courtesy of the so-called Lizard Squad, a "hacktivist" group which is enjoying its time in the media limelight. (Though note that another hacker from Anonymous claimed responsibility for the PSN attack, so it's unclear exactly what went on in that case.)
At any rate, as well as PSN, the BBC reports that Blizzard's Battle.net was also disrupted over the bank holiday weekend, as was Grinding Gear Games which runs an action MMORPG called Path of Exile.
And as was previously threatened, Xbox Live also saw some DDoS fire, and yesterday evening Lizard Squad tweeted: "We hear there are some Xbox Live issues, sorry :P", along with the fact that they were "currently planting flag in XBL's upstream with an AK47".
The squad then appeared to give Microsoft some credit for its network's resilience compared to Sony's, when four hours later a tweet read: "Microsoft props to you for giving us a challenge, good work. Sony, smh."
According to Lizard Squad's Twitter account, the group then went on to attack gaming streaming service Twitch (which is in the spotlight itself following Amazon's deal to purchase it), and just two hours ago this morning, Tumblr was hit. We can get on Tumblr just fine now, though.
To say that's unlikely to be the last activity for today is an understatement, though.
On Sunday, John Smedley, the President of Sony Online Entertainment, also had his flight diverted thanks to a hoax bomb tweet from Lizard Squad, which will doubtless ensure there's a lot of FBI (and other) heat on the group right now.
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