On Christmas Day, many gamers around the world found themselves unable to play their favorite games. The reason? The online services that power those games, PSN and Xbox Live, were under attack by a group of hackers (Lizard Squad) who claimed responsibility.
Today, Xbox Live appears to be up and running, but PSN is still down, although Sony has said they are working to restore it. While gamers wait for services to be fully restored, there are many unanswered questions. Why would someone do something like this? What don't we know?
The shortest answer is “for the Lulz,” as someone familiar with Internet culture would say, meaning “for fun.” But the answer is a little more complicated.
The Daily Dot today published an interview with some of Lizard Squad, the group that claims to have taken down online services. It is also said to be behind a few other attacks in the past.
Of course, no one can confirm that Lizard Squad took down PSN and Xbox Live using denial-of-service attacks. But the timing is right: the group claimed that Xbox Live and PSN would be down on Christmas almost a month before they took down the services. It could have just been a coincidence, but it probably isn’t. Lizard Squad said they took down PSN and Xbox Live on Christmas to prove the “incompetence” of Microsoft and Sony.
[su_column size=”1/3″]“Microsoft and Sony are fucking retarded, literally monkeys behind computers”[/su_column]
“Microsoft and Sony are fucking retarded, and literally monkeys behind computers,” one of the Lizard Squad members told The Daily Dot. “They would have better luck if they hired people who knew what they were doing. If they went from prison to hiring people who had been convicted of things like this, they would have a better chance of preventing attacks like this.”
“If I worked [at Microsoft or Sony] and had a big enough budget I could have stopped these attacks completely,” another Lizard Squad member claimed. “I would have bought more bandwidth, special equipment, and set it up properly. It’s a programming skill. With an attack of this scale it could have gone into the millions. But that wouldn’t be a problem for Sony and Microsoft.”
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In a separate interview with BBC Radio, a member of Lizard Squad was asked if they felt ashamed after essentially ruining children's Christmas.
“If I was ashamed, I would have apologized, but I can’t,” was the response. “With what we’re doing, maybe companies can change for the better,” he later said, explaining why Lizard Squad took down PSN and Xbox Live. He later mentioned that gamers pay so much money in subscriptions to play online, just so Microsoft and Sony can keep these services. Lizard Squad seems convinced that what they’re doing is for the “common good.”.
"We don't really care if we disrupt the public's lives," a member of the Lizard Squad explained. "They could definitely have a day without playing games. The attack only lasted 12 to 14 hours.
Doesn't the communication via Twitter and the interviews that the members of Lizard Squad conduct make them afraid that they will one day be caught?
“There’s a chance we’ll get caught, and I personally don’t worry about it, to be honest,” a member of Lizard Squad said in the BBC interview. “If I get caught, I’ll get caught. Maybe I’ll end up in jail, or maybe I’ll end up helping businesses get better.”
Some claim that what Lizard Squad does isn't really hacking. However, Lizard Squad has an answer that disagrees.
“Attacks of this scale cannot be done without access to insane amounts of funding or being able to gain access to the computers involved through hacking … you can’t do DDoS attacks from your home computer,” Lizard Squad told the Daily Dot in an interview. “It doesn’t work.”
Another member of Lizard Squad doesn't sound so confident about his hacking skills during the BBC radio interview.
“I wouldn’t call myself a top hacker. I know people who are much better than me. But I think I know a few things.”
