Groups of hackers are threatening to take down PlayStation Network and Xbox Live on Christmas, including Steam and Minecraft servers.
First off, Phantom Squad announced that it was going to shut down the PlayStation and Xbox servers, but the group got off on the wrong foot with another hacking team called SkidNP for taking credit for the Xbox Live outage on Thursday. As a result, SkidNP defaced Phantom Squad's website.
"Your website has been hacked by Obstructable & SKidNP. You took credit for multiple attacks that you nor any of your members did. We are not so happy about this so we've taken over your site. Here is a suggestion. Quit while you have the chance because if you take credit for the Christmas attacks, it will be the last thing you do," Phantom Squad's website now reads.
But Phantom Squad is not the only mark in SkidNP's radar, as the hacking team has also set its eye on Steam and Minecraft servers. The group notes that it isn't doing this to ruin gamers' days on Christmas.
"We will be hitting them because we are trying to make services like them [prevent] these sort of attacks, so they get stronger. Anyone with a $5 booter can take down Xbox if they have the right IP," Obstructable, a member of SkidNP, tells Neowin.
Following up on the recent hacking activities, Lizard Squad announced that it was also targeting the PlayStation and Xbox servers via Twitter.
In 6 days a magic trick will be performed and @Xbox & @PlayStation 's servers will go POOF! pic.twitter.com/uUgYhaKGy1
— AppleJ4ck (@AppleJ4ckxoxo) December 18, 2015
Back in Christmas of 2014, Lizard Squad gained notoriety for carrying out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to said servers, where Sony and Microsoft spent 10 days to return things up to speed. Needless to say, gamers all over the world lambasted the hacking group over it.
According to Lizard Squad, last year's effort was to promote Lizard Stresser, the group's rentable DDoS machine.
It's also worth mentioning that before Phantom Squad's website started to sport an adorable yet malicious-looking feline, it featured a lizard and a caption that said, "Your website has been taken over by Lizards."
To put two and two together, it was mistakenly thought that Lizard Squad defaced the website. However, it was confirmed that SkidNP was indeed the culprit and that the group has no affiliation with Lizard Squad.
With these announcements, gaming companies will likely have to straighten up and fly right in terms of security if they want to accommodate the players this holiday season.
