The holidays just wouldn’t be the same without another distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, this one claimed by Phantom Squad. Last night, several Xbox Live users were met with difficulties when logging into the service.
Phantom Squad’s official Twitter account, since taken down, has been threatening to take down both Microsoft’s Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network. In a bout of tweets this past week, the newly organized hackers claim that Microsoft and Sony are to blame for poor security measures:
“Xbox Live and PSN have millions upon millions of dollars… but do they use that money for better security? No. … So until they open their eyes Xbox Live and PSN will remain vulnerable,” -Phantom Squad (December 16)
“I get asked a lot on why we do this? Why do we take down PSN and Xbox Live? Because cyber security does not exist”-Phantom Squad (December 13)
Famous ‘hactivist’ group Anonymous, well known for exposing corporations with poor online security measures, weighed in on the matter with the following tweets from their official account:
“If PSN or Xbox live goes down, Microsoft and Sony are the blame. You would expect these corporations to have sufficient DDoS protection.”-Anonymous (December 16)
“We won’t take down PSN or Xbox live. But if you worry about not being able to play games on Christmas you need to re-evaluate priorities.”-Anonymous (December 16)
If last year’s DDoS attacks, then coordinated by Lizard Squad, have anything to say, this Christmas may be another rough one for people who hope to play their new games.
(Source: TechNow, Eurogamer, Neowin, WBALTV)