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12/22/2024 04:36:39 pm

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Lizard Squad Strikes Xbox Live Again; Plans Massive DDoS Attack by Christmas


The Lizard Squad strikes again, as the group of hackers sent out another distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack to Microsoft's Xbox Live network on Friday. But according to reports, the group is only getting started and is planning another "massive" DDoS attack.

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A DDoS attack is essentially a method to make online services unavailable by overwhelming the servers with a numerous amount of traffic from multiple sources. In this case, the Xbox Live network was down Friday for several hours, and gamers were even having issues connecting online the following day.

Microsoft issued a message on its Xbox Live status page that reads, "issues signing in to Xbox LIVE," while social media was flooded full of Xbox gamers complaining about having login and connection issues. Although Microsoft hasn't yet acknowledged that they've received a DDoS attack, the Lizard Squad took credit via Twitter.

Friday's attack marks the second DDoS attack from the Lizard Squad on Xbox Live this week alone, as the first attack happened on Monday, Dec. 1 having a similar effect. But according to the group, the attacks are small compared to what's to come.

"That's a small dose of what's to come on Christmas," Lizard Squad said in a post on its Twitter account with over 124,000 followers.

Microsoft isn't the only company targeted by the Lizard Squad. The group has attacked multiple services including Sony's PlayStation Network, Twitch.tv, as well as games such as "Destiny" and "Call of Duty." They even went as far as to call in a fake bomb threat on the plane that Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley was on in August.

It's unknown what the group plans to do near Christmas. Many gamers were speculating that they would target the PlayStation Network again during the PlayStation Experience weekend event that began yesterday and continues today, but so far the group has been quiet.

The reasoning behind all the DDoS attacks by Lizard Squad aren't exactly clear. However, the group's Twitter description reads, "Some lizards just want to watch the world burn. Next generation Grinch." 

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