The hacker group known as the Lizard Squad has taken responsibility for a series of attacks that took down some of the biggest gaming networks over the weekend.
The mysterious collective mainly targeted Sony's Playstation Network, however, it also disrupted the services of other platforms such as Xbox Live, Blizzard's Battle.net, Grinding Games' Path of Exile and Riot's League of Legends.
The group's preferred method of disruption is a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. It's not a particularly elegant hacking technique, and the group has been belittled by other hackers, who likened its method to "clogging a toilet." Nonetheless, they've been successful in getting attention.
A DDoS attack is a coordinated effort that involves thousands of computers that attempt to connect to particular service at the same time, thereby overwhelming the network through an excessive number of connections. While it's still unclear whether the Lizard Squad was actually responsible for the cyberattacks (there is some dispute as to who should get credit for the attacks), the group has gained notoriety for its methods and rhetoric. The collective is very vocal, regularly taunting its "victims" on Twitter and telling them to write "Lizard Squad" on their foreheads. It has also adopted a distasteful rhetoric, claiming a link to terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which recently made headlines for beheading American journalist James Foley.
"I'm ready to die for the Caliphate, prison is nothing," said a Lizard Squad Twitter post.
To beef up its claim, the group has posted a video of the 9/11 attacks and several ISIS insignias. While the group is more likely admirers of ISIS rather than an actual terrorist cell, it has actually crossed the line from being a nuisance to committing criminal activity.
The group issued a bomb threat to disrupt the travel plans of Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley. Smedley, who was on an American Airlines flight from Dallas to San Diego, was repeatedly taunted by Lizard Squad on Twitter. The situation escalated when the group tweeted to American Airlines that they received reports that there were "explosives on-board" the flight."
According to a report from Game Zone, the FBI is currently "handling" the bomb threat incident. In relation to the DDoS attack, another hacker has surfaced to claim responsibility for the disruption. FamedGod, who is said to be a member of the hacker collective Anonymous, posted Sony's secure server data to prove that his team was behind the attack.
