Hackers are threatening to ruin Christmas for gamers again

[dlevere]

By hackinformer

If you recall last year, a group of hackers named the Lizard Squad made Christmas not so fun for gamers, as they shut down PlayStation and Xbox online services. The attack last year lasted 3 days, so PlayStation and Xbox gamers couldn’t get online to play their new systems or games they got. Now this year it looks like a new group named Phantom Squad is threatening to do the same thing.



Now all we can do is hope that PlayStation and Xbox have learned from last years attack, and won’t let it happen again.

Source

[dlevere]

Phantom Squad launches DDOS attack against Xbox Live

By Jeffrey Matulef

UPDATE: Service reinstated, but PlayStation Network now under threat.

UPDATE 18/12/2015 12.43am: Now Phantom Squad is taking credit for... reinstating Xbox Live?

"Lmao OF FUCKING COURSE xbox live is back online we stopped the attacks," the hacker group boasted on Twitter, not but three hours after it bragged about bringing the service to its knees.

Lmao OF FUCKING COURSE xbox live is back online we stopped the attacks.— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 18, 2015

But then it offered the following threat to PlayStation Network:

PSN is next... RT if you don't want this to happen.— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 18, 2015

ORIGINAL STORY 18/12/2015 12.23am: They say history repeats itself and that's certainly the case with hackers and December holidays. Last year the mysterious movement known as Lizard Squad disrupted Xbox Live and PlayStation Network services around Christmas via a DDOS attack and now a similar group called Phantom Squad is doing the same.


The Phantom Pain.

Having threatened both Microsoft and Sony's online gaming infrastructures over the past couple of days, the fringe group has now taken credit for stifling Xbox Live, which has just started not working in the last hour or two. For what it's worth, our Wesley Yin-Poole noted his inability to login to Xbox Live about an hour ago, while my service in the States continued to work until only a few minutes ago, so your mileage may vary on this disruption.

Microsoft is aware of the issue and recently offered the following status update on its support site:

"Hey Xbox members, are you having trouble purchasing or managing your subscriptions for Xbox Live? Are you also having an issue with signing into Xbox Live? We are aware of these issues and are working to get it fixed ASAP! Thank you for being patient while we work. We'll post another update when more information becomes available."

As of now, PlayStation Network still appears to be up and running.

Phantom Squad is currently boasting about the service disruption on Twitter, where it gloated the following statements:

Xbox Live #Offline— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 17, 2015

See. This is what happens when you don't believe us.— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 17, 2015

Maybe if you guys didn't talk shit about us, we would not hit Xbox Live this early.— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 17, 2015

Prior to the Xbox Live outage, Phantom Squad made the following threats to Sony and Microsoft's online gaming services:

2,000 followers... ready for the second reason of our purpose?— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

Ok think about this... Xbox Live and PSN have millions upon millions of dollars... but do they use that money for better security?— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

No. PSN and Xbox don't use that money to improve their security... So until they open their eyes Xbox Live and PSN will remain vulnerable.— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

PSN and Xbox Live... Companies that have millions of dollars... and don't bother on working on security.— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

Last time this happened two men were quickly arrested following the aftermath of the DDOS attack, while a third man was brought to justice the following summer. Shortly thereafter, his cohorts at Lizard Squad attacked Daybreak Games' titles Planetside 2 and H1Z1 after studio head John Smedley heavily criticized convicted hacker Julius "zeekill" Kivimaki for a series of personal attacks.

We've requested comment from Microsoft on how it plans to combat this threat.

[dlevere]

PSN Down? Phantom Squad confirm they will “Definitely Attack PSN/XBL on Christmas”, claim responsibility for EA servers DDoS

By wololo

Electronic Arts servers were down for a couple hours earlier today, and it seems Phantom Squad have claimed responsibility for the DDoS.

Given that all their twitter accounts get closed one after the other, it is difficult to confirm how true things can be at this point, but it’s a fact that EA servers were down a few hours ago, and according to Techworm, Phantom Squad claimed responsibility for that.

In parallel, this account, which seems linked to the group, announced they would definitely be attacking PSN/Xbox Live for Christmas.

We’ll definitely be attacking PSN/XBL on Christmas ;D

— Phantom Squad (@RealPhantomRaid) December 24, 2015

Screenshot in case it gets taken down by twitter:



The same twitter account claims they have joined forces with Lizard Squad, the group that attacked the PXN and XBL last year with similar DDoS attacks. It’s possible the DDoS attacks have already begun (although it is not clear if this is done by Phantom Squad or another root cause), as the PSN is apparently very difficult to access right now. A Flash sale was supposed to happen on the PSN earlier today and people are having a hard time accessing it:

everyone pls log off PSN — Wario64 (@Wario64) December 24, 2015

It’s shaping like we could have another sad Christmas on the PSN and Xbox Live if script kiddies decide that their way of having fun is to ruin other gamers Christmas.

[MathUser]

Did the attack commense?

[dlevere]

No, not yet.