The 'Lizard Squad' That Took Down Playstation Network And Xbox Live Seems To Have Gone Silent
The group's Twitter account has not posted anything in nearly 24 hours, after tweeting nonstop for the past several days and weeks.
Lizard Squad was extremely active and vocal on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when the group claimed to have successfully taken down two major gaming networks, Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live.
Even after the group agreed to stop attacking those networks on Friday afternoon, the group seemed to have shifted its attention to Tor, the anonymous communications service, drawing the ire of the international hactivist collective Anonymous.
The Lizard Squad didn't seem intimidated by Anonymous, or anyone. In fact, the group seemed willing to communicate with the public, and in interviews with press.
Lizard Squad members spoke to WinBeta and Daily Dot, even during its attacks on the game networks. One member revealed his face in a full interview UK's Sky News. It even sent three members to take part in an 18-minute interview that included Kim Dotcom and members of Anonymous: Lizard Squad used all these platforms to answer questions and explain its rationale for the string of recent attacks on these internet networks.
But now, everything on the hacker collective front is eerily quiet. No interviews, no online activity.
Meanwhile, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Tor all appear to be back online.
Some points/theories to consider:
- Lizard Squad promised it would never attack PlayStation Network or Xbox Live again, after accepting Kim Dotcom's offer of lifetime premium memberships to his subscription service, so perhaps they're actually keeping their word: Maybe the group that's known for its DDoS attacks on game networks is really, actually, done targeting them. And maybe attacking Tor proved too difficult a challenge, so they're regrouping.
- Lizard Squad is known for taking down game networks and it just successfully manhandled PlayStation Network and Xbox Live for two straight days, during the biggest holiday of the year for gamers. That's a tough feat to top - perhaps the group is taking a break.
- After so many interviews with Lizard Squad members, a security researcher believes he has identified some of the members. So it's possible the group is now strategically laying low, waiting for things to cool down before acting up again.
We've reached out to Lizard Squad and we'll update the story if any members respond.