Lizard Squad – the group that stole Christmas

Christmas morning gamers all over the world were unable to play their favourite games. This was due to a DOS (denial of service attack) on both the Playstation Network (PSN) and Xbox Live. The group taking responsibility for this are known as Lizard Squad, hackers who earlier in the year threatened to bring down PSN and Xbox Live on Christmas Day.

In an interview with Sky News, a boy named Ryan claimed to be a member of Lizard Squad. Asked why the team carried out the attack, he said: “Mostly to raise awareness – to amuse ourselves. Also one of the big aspects here was raising awareness regarding the low state of computer security at these companies.

“Because these companies make tens of millions every month from subscriber fees and that doesn’t even include purchases made by their customers. They should have more than enough funding to be able to protect against these attacks.

“And if they can’t protect against the attacks on their core business networks then I don’t think they’re really doing that much on their overall level of security. And these customers are still giving these companies their credit card numbers and such.”

Ryan continued: “It is sort of a game for us I have to admit. I completely understand that it’s a bit unethical. I’d be rather worried if those people didn’t have anything better to do than play games on their consoles on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I mean I can’t really be (inaudible) feel bad. I might have forced a couple of kids to spend their time with their families instead of playing games.”

Xbox Live service was restored on Saturday, and most players are back on PSN now. Playstation have released a statement on their blog: “PlayStation Network is back online. As you probably know, PlayStation Network and some other gaming services were attacked over the holidays with artificially high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay. This may have prevented your access to the network and its services over the last few days. Thanks again for your support and patience. We’ll provide any further updates here.”

Mega-gamer @KimDotCom has taken responsibility for the restoration of services, with the help of @MegaPrivacy. However I’m unable to verify the truth of this.

Good guy gamer giants Bungie have extended the time that Xur, the exotic-items merchant, is available to trade with players this weekend in Destiny. Bungie said on Destiny’s official blog. The studio also said it will “keep an eye on the overall situation, and prolong the extension, as needed for as long as is feasible.”

Rockstar Games have also announced that the GTA Online Festive Surprise Christmas Day event is now extended. Rockstar Support’s announcement was made through a tweet on Twitter, which said: “Due to issues with PSN & XBL connectivity, we’re extending the GTA Online Festive Surprise Christmas Day inventory gifts for the time being.”