The gaming world has been in turmoil this Christmas, suffering at the hands of Hackers who were taking down the online gaming services of both Microsoft and Sony using Denial Of Service Attacks. Services were restored after Mega file hosting owner 'Kim Dotcom' offered payment of 3000 Premium Mega vouchers with a value of $300,000 and the hacking group known as the Lizard Squad stopped the attacks on the gaming networks. https://twitter.com/LizardMafia/status/548616435183140864 Xbox Live came back online shortly after Kims kind gesture, however PSN remained down until the 27th of December, which means gamers that got a PS4 for Christmas couldn't play online for almost 2 days. Although Kim dotcom had good intention when he offered payment for the attacks to stop, we have to ask ourselves if it was the right thing to do and also question what were Microsoft and Sony actually doing to stop these attacks? Since the attacks stopped on both XBL and PSN services, other smaller groups are now appearing and threatening to attack the gaming services after seeing the notoriety of Lizard Squad, which was to be expected. Although denial of service attacks are hard to stop, the Lizard Squad themselves stated that they can be prevented, and in a recent interview with TheDailyDot the hacking group stated that the attacks could be stopped if they hired the right people and spent money on the right equipment. “If I was working [at Microsoft or Sony] and had a big enough budget, I could totally stop these attacks,†“I’d buy more bandwidth, some specific equipment, and configure it correctly. It’s just about programming skill. With an attack of this scale, it could go up to the millions. But that’s really no problem for Sony and Microsoft.†During an interview with Steve Nolan on BBC Radio the Lizard Squad were asked why they carried out these attacks on the gaming services on Christmas day and they claim that it was to highlight the exploits within the gaming networks. https://twitter.com/LizardMafia/status/548621930606370816 It would certainly seem that the squad do have an end goal of gaining employment within either Microsoft or Sony as they mention it in more than one of the interviews they have done. This is of course how George Francis Hotz, alias geohot, a hacker known for unlocking the iPhone and Playstation 3 gained employment with Google. So what exactly are Microsoft and Sony doing to prevent similar attacks from other groups? This is a trend that we as gamers need to get used to unless Microsoft and Sony step up and introduce better preventative measures. Should they employ the Lizard squad to prevent similar attacks happening from other groups? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="d0ok13" data-time="1419685951"> <div> they should it takes krazy to stop krazy lol </div> </blockquote> It isn't about crazy, its about knowledge. Have you ever asked Microsoft or PSN support anything that is slightly taxing? We have tested this theory a few times on live chat with MS support and run rings around them just to prove points, and one occasions have even had the support techs admit they do not get trained enough or have the relevant information.<br> The corporations just seem happy enough to sit back and take the money the generate from sales of subscriptions and such and just let things ride.
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Bullet" data-time="1419690600"> <div> It isn't about crazy, its about knowledge. Have you ever asked Microsoft or PSN support anything that is slightly taxing? We have tested this theory a few times on live chat with MS support and run rings around them just to prove points, and one occasions have even had the support techs admit they do not get trained enough or have the relevant information.<br> The corporations just seem happy enough to sit back and take the money the generate from sales of subscriptions and such and just let things ride. </div> </blockquote> I wouldn't assume that entirely true. I mean they don't want to get sued and lose all that wealth, now do they? I'm sure they have something happening, just not as fast as it should be. You can't claim against what there eventually fixing. They will lose everytime.
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nasyr" data-time="1419796735"> <div> I wouldn't assume that entirely true. I mean they don't want to get sued and lose all that wealth, now do they? I'm sure they have something happening, just not as fast as it should be. You can't claim against what there eventually fixing. They will lose everytime. </div> </blockquote> No that is entirely true. I spent about an hour explaining to a MS employee how you would go about DDOSing someone. And he was baffled now needless to say this was there Tech support that i was talking to. And im sorry DDOSing someone is very simple very basic information and he was thrown through loops about it. And he made me go through step by step instructions on how to do this. This conversation took place back in 2007 or 2008 so it was a while ago. But honestly me and my friends who were there that day had a kick out of it.
