Now that cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs has outed members the group that took out the PlayStation and Xbox Live networks over Christmas, the hackers are coming after him.
“Lizard Squad” has been bombarding KrebsOnSecurity.com with garbage traffic for some 40 days, Krebs told CNNMoney. On Friday morning, they finally managed to bring it down — although only for a short time.
Lizard Squad is a curious modern day phenomenon. With little technical skill and zero finesse, a mysterious group has affected more than 150 million lives by wreaking havoc on popular gaming networks in the last year.
First, they interrupted Battle.net (where folks play World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, Diablo), EVE Online and League of Legends. Then they made an empty bomb threat on Twitter that diverted an American Airlines jet carrying a Sony executive.
Then Lizard Squad ruined Christmas for people around the world by interrupting the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live just as folks attempted to play with their new consoles and games. It took several days to bring them back online.
Lizard Squad launched its own website-takedown service, called “Lizard Stresser.” It offers targeted “distributed denial of service” attacks. DDoS attacks basically flood a site with illegitimate traffic until it’s overloaded and doesn’t respond.
Krebs, author of “Spam Nation” and an independent journalist, is trying to hunt them down. In the last week, he’s identified two members of Lizard Squad: a 22-year-old British man called Vinnie Omari and a 16-year-old Finnish boy, Julius Kivimäki. Police have since arrested Omari and interrogated Kivimäki, according to those nations’ news reports.
Lizard Squad’s response is just what you’d expect from Internet hooligans. On Twitter, the group jokes incessantly about Krebs’ hairline and proudly proclaims, “You can’t arrest a lizard.”
