14 DAY TRIAL // Representatives of Lizard Squad, the group behind the recent DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live services, claim that, with a few precautions from Sony and Microsoft, they could have easily been prevented.
The winter holidays began last week all around the world and quite a lot of people got, as presents from others or from themselves, new consoles such as the PS4 or the Xbox One. Unfortunately for them, when they tried to take the devices online to update their firmware or download their bundled digital games, they were met with error messages.
During the last week or so, both the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live services, which are the backbone of the PlayStation and Xbox gaming experiences, have been offline or have experienced lengthy outages.
While such a thing isn't surprising, given that many people wanted to connect at the same time, there were also various DDoS attacks organized by Lizard Squad, a group that's already attained infamy due to its high-profile targets and successful operations.
Lizard Squad explains why it attacked PSN and Xbox Live
Now, after the attacks have stopped and both services are coming back online, Lizard Squad representatives have talked with DailyDot about their reasons and how, with enough resources, the outages could have been prevented.
Instead of professional security consultants, the group explains that the two companies would have more luck with hiring convicted felons who dabbled in cybercrime.
"Microsoft and Sony are [expletive], literally monkeys behind computers," one of the representatives says. "They would have better luck if they actually hired someone who knew what they were doing. Like, if they went around prisons and hired people who were convicted for stuff like this, they would have a better chance at preventing attacks."
With enough resources, the outages could have been prevented
According to the group, both Sony and Microsoft need to allocate bigger budgets, buy more bandwidth and specific equipment, and configure everything properly in order to avoid these attacks from wreaking havoc.
"If I was working [at Microsoft or Sony] and had a big enough budget, I could totally stop these attacks," the rep adds. "I’d buy more bandwidth, some specific equipment, and configure it correctly. It’s just about programming skill. With an attack of this scale, it could go up to the millions. But that’s really no problem for Sony and Microsoft."
As of right now, both the PSN and Xbox Live are operational, but you can expect more outages soon enough, during the New Year holiday.
