FBI confirms: Lizard Squad under investigation for PSN, Xbox Live attacks

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has started investigating Lizard Squad, the online group that took credit for knocking PlayStation Network and Xbox Live offline. On Christmas, Lizard Squad allegedly assaulted Sony’s and Microsoft’s servers with a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack, which overwhelms a target with junk data that most servers don’t know how to handle. The result was that gamers on PlayStation and Xbox systems were without the ability to play many games for extended periods of time.

“The FBI is investigating the matter,” a spokesperson for the bureau told GamesBeat.

[gangsta_red]

I wonder if Sony and MS had to throw some money or favors towards the FBI in order for them to now take notice.

It'll be interesting to see what the FBI will even do or how high of a priority this will be on their list of things to get done.

[Hellsvacancy]

Pay the FBI to do their job? are you outta your mind

[gangsta_red]

Oh yea, because bribing or exchanging money to officials, law enforcement or any other departments in the government is sooooooo out of the question and has never been done or heard of before.

I have to wonder how high on the list of "things to do" does this attack against a video game service stands on the FBI list? Especially a DDOS attack and not an actual hack that grabbed credit card information or stole millions of dollars.

[Finalfantasykid]

@gangsta If I'm not mistaken they have said they could take down the NASDAQ if they wanted to. So if they can take down the stock exchange markets, banks etc. even temporarily they could do some damage to the economy. So for now they have been primarily targeting video game services, but that doesn't mean they won't go to more impactfull targets in the future.

[Muzikguy]

It may sound crazy, but that's the way a lot stuff in the great USA works. Or so it seems anyway. There's a lot of people that get paid to do nothing and then when they have to do something they get paid even more for it. I bet if that stuff wasn't happening our economy would be so much better!

[Jaqen_Hghar]

Well given the state of the federal govt. these days they may need paid to start just about anything.

[Muzikguy]

If they didn't get paid, that's a better idea. No pay until something is being done. I wish that would happen, but it won't. At least that would make them actually work instead of discussing stupid sh!t like how to keep the government from shutting down

[MeliMel]

Nah, they have a internet group, just like CIA. With all the recent Hacking going on Lizard Squad was already in thw crosshairs. They just letting us know now because they probably have a good lead.

[jukins]

Exactly anyone who thinks they array weren't under investigation is insane. It's just a matter of priorities. Hackers messing up video game servers usually takes a back seat to more serious crimes.

[RosweeSon]

"They have a good lead".... Goggle?

[Baka-akaB]

You guys do realize that just because their telling you NOW about the investigations doesnt mean that they just started ... it's not has if they openly discuss most investigations

[Xb1ps4]

Exactly... Not only that but wasn't lizard square parading how they were going to take down both networks on Xmas day well before Xmas? Feds could have already been set up to catch those losers..

All this is obviously speculation on what we think and hope... I just hope they get caught They already have one idiot on Skype! Please make an example of them!

[VegasDawg]

No doubt the U.S is completely corrupt, but this is beyond ridiculous. Corporations run Congress they don't need to pay them, they're the boss.

[LightDiego]

Great, take these fools down.

[Relientk77]

I'm surprised Lizard Squad even lasted this long. They will be caught eventually, and then all gamers will be happy

[Malphite]

Sadly it's very unlikely that the happiness will last for long. It's very doubtful that the fbi will catch all of them but even if they do others will continue what they've started.

Ddos attacks will become more common in the future. The only way to prevent some of the chaos will be to allow monitoring and analysing of sent and received data by the ISPs. So less freedom for more safety in the end.

[feraldrgn]

Pretty ironic that the hackers are essentially leading us in that direction.

[TheFutureIsBlue]

The one article gamers will agree on! Can't wait for Lizard Squad to be caught. Hopefully no one else will mess with Sony or Microsoft since the FBI is getting involved.

[stuna1]

Now see if these Lizards grow a new tail!

The FBI is probably looking into this as a whole, because lets face it, the internet is a beast of many heads and many backdoors, and although Sony & Microsoft were the focus of the latest attacks, there are far bigger high profile institutions at risk including the FBI.

[BlissSeeker]

Hahahaha there is no way in hell Kittten Squad will target the FBI. I can picture it now:
"#LizardSquad #FBI Their network is down. There's no stopping us now."
*hears knocking*
"brb some skrubs knocking on my door."

[pompombrum]

I'm pretty sure the FBI and other government establishments in the US have enough to deal with from foreign hacking groups from countries like North Korea, Russia, China etc.

[stuna1]

I'm not saying that that they would attack the FBI perse, but there have been instances where goverment as well as financial institutions have been attacked by groups in the U.S as well as around the world. , and not all the members of these groups are based outside the U.S.

[ShadowWolf712]

@aiBreeze FBI deals primarily with domestic issues. International/National Security generally becomes jurisdiction of the CIA or NSA.

[Godz Kastro]

I dont understand why you got disagrees. I agree; I dont think the FBI is worried about gamers not being able to play.

If you allow this type of behavior to go unchecked these guys will move on to bigger and more dangerous campaigns.

I know these are just DDOS attacks and not really an infiltration of XBOXLIVE/PSN. But can you imagine major banking institutions getting attacked where you could not access your money or even worse stealing or wiping out your balances some way.

Now that is a dangerous future. Have to nip this in the bud before these guys or guys like them get out of hand.

[stuna1]

Most people look at things from a black and white point of view, but there are so many different shades of gray in between.

[SonyStyled]

@ aiBreeze

I doubt that considering there is far more important things for them to be doing than listening into my phone calls, texts, emails, etc to find terror plot communications. But they do that to everybody citizen. It's all filtered through a computer or something and if the computer analyzed the words. If one conversation seems suspicious to the computer it would then be analyzed be a person

[strangeaeon]

I am not certain but I recall a system called Carnivore that was used by the CIA and FBI to sift through personal data.

[cruzngta]

After the FBI catches these little greasy haired nerds they will be going to the Big House with Bubba and Co. where they will 'forcefully' transition to the 'PUNK squad'. Justice will be served.

[Donnywho]

I'm pretty sure it was the CIA collecting information on gaming culture before they take us all in to fight the future war.

[Tedakin]

I think these guys' buttholes are about to get hacked in prison. LOL.....