Even as Christmas revelers came to terms with Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) Play Station Network hacking, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox Live too was in the same status. Claiming victory was the hacker group, ‘Lizard Squad’ by way of tweets showcasing their success in breaching the security networks of two of the largest technology-based companies.
As with earlier such attacks ‘Lizard Squad’ executed the Christmas-eve hack by way of their signature method of DDOS. The technique involves the process of overloading servers by flooding bogus connection requests.
Sony confirms Attack
Sony has thus far confirmed the attack on its services via its official twitter account, but has refrained from confirming if the outage was due to DDOS attack.
Earlier in the week, there had been threats from the ‘Lizard Squad’ hackers of mounting holiday season hacking of both PlayStation as well as Xbox Live. Apparently, other networks hosting popular network games are likely to be its future victims. Analysts predict that such future threats too would be executed by way of the DDOS method.
Sony Pictures Network swiped for Data
Thus far, Sony Corp’s other unit, Sony Pictures, too has been under similar hacks. But the nature of attacks have been different, for malware was used to wipe out data on Sony Picture networks and placing personal details of Sony employees such as salaries and more on the public domain.
There is more drama to Sony Pictures network hacking as it involves investigations by Federal Bureau of Investigations. The investigating agencies is probing all angles of the attack, including a state-sponsored cyberattack by reclusive North Korean government against Sony Picture’s latest film ‘The Interview’ involving North Korean leader, Kim II.
Another hacker group, ‘The Finest Squad,’ has announced the identities of several of the ‘Lizard Squad’ online.
Lizard Squad is not just stopping with downing networks. In a day long engagement with gamers, it has been on Twitter uploading each of its invasions, and offering false hope that it would be restoring the downed network.
