Lizard Squad Hacks Sony’s PlayStation Network

In yet another swing on gaming sites, Lizard Squad took down Sony’s PlayStation network just days after they hacked Microsoft’s Xbox live. The hackers group known for huge denial of service  attacks seems to be on hacking spree this Christmas and it’s only a matter of time when the group will hack the next gaming site. Maybe it’s time for Sony to shore up its security or continue languishing in the hands of cyber criminals.

Sony is seemingly having the worst 20th anniversary, following another hack on its PlayStation Network just days after hackers took down its online Entertainment Studio. Gamers who tried accessing PSN on Sunday night and Monday morning were greeted by a message saying “Page Not Found! It’s not you. It’s the Internet’s fault.”

A Russian based hacker’s group known as Lizard squad acknowledged hacking PSN through it tweeter feed, “PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad” read one of Lizard hackers’ tweet on Sunday night.

Sony also acknowledged the denial of service on its site through its official twitter account. “We are currently investigating the root cause for the issue.” Read Sony’s tweet at around Midnight GMT on Sunday. “Thanks for your patience as we investigate.”

The hack on PlayStation Network comes in the wake of another fall-out in Sony Pictures, after a North Korean based group, GOP, infiltrated the Studio’s computer network and leaked unreleased movies online. Among the movies making rounds in Online sharing sites include, Furry, a WW2 drama by Brad Pitt, Mr. Turner, Still Alice and Annie. The hackers also leaked confidential information of Hollywood stars including their banking information.

The hack at Sony pictures is believed to be a retaliatory attack against “The Interview”, a movie by Sony pictures featuring a plot to assassinate the North Korean Leader. On Monday, GOP warned Sony to “immediately stop showing the movie of terrorism which can break the regional peace and cause the War!” said GOP’s in statement on GitHub Gist. “The destiny of SONY is totally up to the wise reaction & measure of SONY.”

Last week, Lizard squad, notorious for hacking gaming sites pulled down Microsoft’s Xbox live causing massive outage for hours. The group went on to bluff on twitter saying the hack was a just a “small dose”, of the “wonderful Christmas present” Microsoft should expect in the coming days. Apparently, Lizard squad decided to first drop Sony a present during its 20th Anniversary celebrations.

In the past, Lizard hackers acknowledged hacking, League of Legends, EA Games, Destiny and Microsoft Xbox Live. The hallmark of the group’s attacks are huge distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), a hackers’ technique employed to flood the target with high traffic requests from the hackers botnet rendering the target servers unresponsive to legitimate users’ requests.

Little is known about the real identities of the hackers behind Lizard squad, expect that they hack for fun and online glory. Some experts believe the Lizards Squad is a hacktivist group with close ties with ISIS, and may be out on a revenge mission to foreign countries intervening in the Syrian crisis.

Lawrence Mwangi Lawrence is a technology and business reporter. He has freelanced for a number of tech sites and magazines. He is a web-enthusiast, with a special interest in Online security, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. When not writing about tech he can be found in a Tennis court or on a chess board.
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