Lizard Squad DDoS Attack News 2014: Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox Hit By New Cyberattack

Sony cannot seem to escape the attention of hackers who took down their PlayStation network over Christmas. Following the attack on Sony, the group calling itself the "Lizard Squad" also incapacitated the Xbox Live network which is owned by Microsoft.

The hack attack started on Christmas Day, a day when there's usually heavy traffic on Sony's PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live as gamers spend large amount of time trying out new gaming consoles.

However, the attack did not come out of the blue. The New York Times noted that prior to the hacking, the "Lizard Squad" had warned that they would take down the two networks with distributed denial of service attack otherwise known as DDoS.

The DDoS attack which the hackers used on the PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live involved flooding their servers with loads of Internet traffic until they shut down. Several websites have stated that a DDoS attack is one of the most common methods used by the "Lizard Squad" to attack companies.

Since the PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live were hacked, users have been unable to view the websites associated with these two services. A message on the PlayStation Network's website instead showed that the site was "Under Scheduled Maintenance" and it would be back shortly.

The New York Times said that after the networks went down, Kim Dotcom, who is one of the owners of Megaupload, offered the "Lizard Squad" free access to his new service Mega if they stopped the DDoS attack on the PlayStation Network and Microsoft Xbox Live.

"Lizard Squad" promptly accepted the offer. Since then, the Xbox network owned by Microsoft came online. However, Sony's PlayStation Network remained down as of Friday.

It is believed that "Lizard Squad" is not affiliated with the "Guardians of Peace," a group that last week hacked Sony's network, stole films, and threatened physical violence on those who saw "The Interview" film.