Interesting Christmas here, and across much of the country. DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks by a hacker group called Lizard Squad have made Xbox Live and the Playstation Network unavailable to a large part of the country all day. And with Christmas being a popular time to exchange new gaming consoles and video games, there has been widespread frustration and unhappiness. Not to mention those who would have been gaming anyway just because it was a day off.
My grandson and I just started playing Destiny together a few days ago (first time he’s been allowed to play a first person shooter) and hoped to play some more this evening. Nope. We both need access to Xbox Live to do so. The service did come back up for a short time around 7 pm and I was able to rent and watch “The Interview,” but by the time the movie was over, the service was down again.
The Lizard Squad is suspected of helping North Korea hack Sony, and some sources think today’s outages are the “Christmas surprise” that North Korea mentioned earlier this week. Earlier this month, LS promised Christmas attacks and has been bragging about the outages since they began yesterday.
I suppose that makes the day a wash for North Korea and the hackers. “The Interview” was released, but much of the nation’s gaming was taken down. Hope this gets sorted out soon. I got two new games for Christmas.
And yes, Anonymous has spoken up as the good guys. In early December, after some preliminary Lizard Squad attacks on Playstation Network and Xbox Live, they issued this warning:
It would be interesting to see how this all works out — if only they weren’t messing with my gaming.
That’s just plain rude — esp. on Xmas!
🙁
Yep, pure maliciousness. They gain nothing from this.
So, how’d you like the movie? (The Interview)
Didn’t care for it. But didn’t expect to. Under different circumstances I’d have never paid to see it. Had planned to rent it but not watch it … but then I couldn’t get into any of my games.
Wait… you planned to rent it but NOT watch it?
Yep. I wanted to rent it, just to make a statement. Didn’t care if I watched it or not because it’s just not my kind of movie and I’d heard it wasn’t very good. But then I ended up with nothing better to do, so I watched it.
Ahhh.. That’s what I figured. Just wanted to make sure I “heard” correctly.
They’re currently attacking Tor, and Anonymous is rather pissed. http://www.businessinsider.com/anonymous-to-lizard-squad-stop-attacking-tor-2014-12
Yes, I’d read Anonymous, Finest Squad, and even Kim Dotcom are all trying to stop them. Apparently not making much headway. I was unable to play Destiny with my grandson again this evening. This is getting really annoying …
PT, how on earth do you find time to play games on the computer?
Easy. I rarely go out, and computer activities are my primary hobby.
Well that answers that, full stop! 😳
I wondered if you were suffering.
It is annoying, you little snots. (You aren’t special. Try doing something constructive and become really special in the true sense.) Society has raised these creatures. Now what? (Just like those oblivious parents of that child annoying everyone in the airports or restaurant….)
The Internet is rife with sarcastic, angry remarks about 15-year-olds operating in mom’s basement. Many of them probably from other 15-year-olds gaming in mom’s basement. One does wonder where the parents are.