Lizard Squad

Lizard Squad
Formation August 18, 2014
Type Hacking
Membership
 7

Lizard Squad is a black hat hacking group, mainly known for their claims of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks[1] primarily to disrupt gaming-related services.

On September 3, 2014, Lizard Squad seemingly announced that it had disbanded[2] only to return later on, claiming responsibility for a variety of attacks on prominent websites. The organisation at one point participated in the Darkode hacking forums and shared hosting with them.[3][4]

Distributed denial-of-service attacks

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack occurs when numerous systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually one or more web servers.[5] Such an attack is often the result of multiple systems (for example a botnet) flooding the targeted system with traffic. When a server is overloaded with connections, new connections can no longer be accepted.

Notable actions

League of Legends DDoS

On August 18, 2014, servers of the game League of Legends were taken offline with a DDoS attack; this was claimed as Lizard Squad's first attack.[6]

Destiny DDoS

On November 23, 2014, Lizard Squad claimed they attacked Destiny servers with a DDoS attack.[7]

PlayStation Network DDoS

On August 24, 2014 the PlayStation Network was disrupted via a DDoS attack, and again On December 8, with Lizard Squad claiming responsibility.[8][9][10]

Xbox Live DDoS

On December 1, 2014, Xbox Live was apparently attacked by Lizard Squad, users attempting to connect to use the service would be given the 80151909 error code.[11]

The Machinima Hack

On December 2, 2014, Lizard Squad hacked Machinima.com, replacing their front page with ASCII art of their logo.[12]

North Korea DDoS

On December 22, 2014, Internet in North Korea was taken offline by a DDoS attack.[13] Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack and linked to an IP address located in North Korea.[14] North Korean Internet services were restored on the 23 December 2014.[15]

Christmas attacks

Lizard Squad had previously threatened to take down gaming services on Christmas.[16]

On December 25, 2014 (Christmas Day), Lizard Squad claimed to have performed a DDoS attack on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.[17]

On December 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM, Lizard Squad appeared to stop attacking PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Gizmodo reported that the attacks may have ceased after Kim Dotcom offered Lizard Squad 3000 accounts on his upload service MEGA.[18]

Tor sybil attack

On December 26, 2014, a Sybil attack involving more than 3000 relays was attempted against the Tor network.[19] Nodes with names beginning with "LizardNSA" began appearing, Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for this attack.[20]

The relevance of the attack was questioned. According to Tor relay node operator Thomas White, the consensus system made that Lizard Squad only managed to control "0.2743% of the network, equivalent of a tiny VPS".[21]

Malaysia Airlines website attack

On January 26, 2015, the website of Malaysia Airlines was attacked, apparently by Lizard Squad, calling itself a "cyber caliphate". Users were redirected to another page bearing an image of a tuxedo-wearing lizard, and reading "Hacked by Cyber Caliphate". Underneath this was text reading "follow the cyber caliphate on twitter" after which were the Twitter accounts of the owner of UMG, "@UMGRobert" and CEO of UMG, "@UMG_Chris". The page also carried the headline "404 - Plane Not Found", an apparent reference to the airline's loss of flight MH370 last year with 239 people on board. Malaysia Airlines assured customers and clients that customer data had not been compromised.[22]

Media reports around the world said versions of the takeover in some regions included the wording "ISIS will prevail", which listed concerns of Lizard Squad's association with the Islamic State.[22]

False claims

Bomb threats

On August 24, 2014, Lizard Squad claimed that a plane on which the president of Sony Online Entertainment, John Smedley, was flying (American Airlines Flight 362), had explosives on board.[23][24] The flight from Dallas to San Diego made an unscheduled landing in Phoenix, Arizona. Sony Online Entertainment announced that the FBI was investigating the incident.[24]

Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder attack

On January 26, 2015, several social media services including Facebook and Instagram were unavailable to users. Tinder and HipChat were also affected. Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attacks, via a posting on a Twitter account previously used by the group.[25] The outage, originally speculated to be a Distributed Denial of Service attack, lasted a little under an hour before services were restored.[26]

Facebook later released a statement saying its own engineers were to blame, and that the disruption to its services was not the result of a third-party attack, but instead occurred after they introduced a change that affected their configuration systems.[27]

Explicit celebrity photos

On January 27, 2015, Lizard Squad claimed to have compromised Taylor Swift's Twitter and Instagram accounts. Once they claimed to have access, they threatened to release nude photos in exchange for bitcoins. Taylor Swift, however, retorted that "there were no naked pics" and told the offenders to "have fun" finding any.[28]

Known members

obnoxious

"obnoxious", a 17-year-old resident of Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, was arrested in December 2014 in connection with numerous instances of swatting and doxing he allegedly committed. "obnoxious", whose legal name is not publicly known due to a publication ban, identified himself online as a Lizard Squad member. He primarily targeted female players of the MOBA League of Legends and their families.

On May 15, 2015, he pleaded guilty to 23 counts of extortion, public mischief, and criminal harassment.[29] [30]

Vinnie Omari

Vinnie Omari is a member of the Lizard Squad who was arrested and bailed under the alleged offences of "Enter into/concerned in acquisition/retention/use or control criminal property, Fraud by false representation - Fraud Act 2006, Conspire to steal from another, unauthorized computer access with intent to commit other offences".[31]

Julius Kivimaki

Julius Kivimaki (zeekill) is a Finnish member of Lizard Squad convicted in July 2015 on over 50,000 counts of computer crime.[32]

References

  1. ↑ "How A Hacker Gang Literally Saved Christmas For Video Game Players Everywhere". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Lizard Squad Hacker Collective Announces Disbanding". Softpedia News. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  3. ↑ MalwareTech (December 2014). "Darkode - Ode to Lizard Squad (The Rise and Fall of a Private Community)". Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Buncombe, August (15 July 2015). "Darkode: FBI shuts down notorious online forum and cracks 'cyber hornet's nest of criminal hackers'". The Independent.
  5. ↑ Taghavi Zargar, Saman (November 2013). "A Survey of Defense Mechanisms Against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Flooding Attacks" (PDF). IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS. pp. 2046–2069. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  6. ↑ Gilbert, David (August 26, 2014). "Who Are Lizard Squad - Isis-Linked Hackers or Trolls Making Bomb Threats?". International Business Times.
  7. ↑ Schmitz, Alex (November 23, 2014). "Destiny Gamers Facing Connection Errors, Servers DDOS’ed by the Lizard Squad". Gamechup. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  8. ↑ Zorabedian, John (August 26, 2014). ""Lizard Squad" hackers force PSN offline, and Sony exec from the sky". Naked Security. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ "PlayStation Network Hacked 'By Lizard Squad'". Sky News (London). December 8, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ Jones, Gary (December 9, 2014). "Sony confirm DDOS attack after Lizard Squad claim PSN 'take down' affecting PS4 and PS3: SONY have confirmed the Playstation Network was hit by a DDOS attack this week, affecting both the PS4 and PS3.". Express (London). Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  11. ↑ McWherter, Michael (December 1, 2014). "Xbox Live having issues, hacker group claims responsibility for taking it offline [update]". Polygon. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Sony hack: North Korea back online after internet outage". BBC Newsbeat. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "Sony hack: North Korea back online after internet outage". Ars Technica. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  14. ↑ "North Korean Web goes dark days after Obama pledges response to Sony hack". Washington Post. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  15. ↑ "Sony hack: North Korea back online after internet outage". BBC News (BBC). Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "Xbox Live: Lizard Squad hackers promise DDoS attacks at Christmas". International Business Times. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  17. ↑ "Please let us play! Thousands of Playstation and Xbox gamers who are STILL locked out of networks plead with hackers who 'ruined Christmas' to let them log on to games". Daily Mail. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  18. ↑ "Kim Dotcom May Have Just Saved Holiday Gaming". Gizmodo. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  19. ↑ "[tor-consensus-health] Possible Sybil Attack". "tor-consensus-health" mailing list. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  20. ↑ "Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor". Gizmodo. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  21. ↑ Congrats to Lizard Squad people who with 3300 or so relays control 0.2743% of the network. Equivalent of a tiny VPS. TheCthulhu on Twitter. 26 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  22. 1 2 Malaysia Airlines website 'compromised' by 'cyber caliphate' Lizard Squad hackers, ABC News Australia, 26 Jan 2015
  23. ↑ "Who Are Lizard Squad - Isis-Linked Hackers or Trolls Making Bomb Threats?". International Business Times. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  24. 1 2 "Hackers Ground Sony Executive's Flight With Bomb-Threat Tweet". Forbes. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  25. ↑ Lizard Squad, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, AIM, Hipchat #offline #LizardSquad, Twitter, January 26, 2015
  26. ↑ Hachman, Mark, Internet problems take out Facebook, Instagram, others; Lizard Squad takes credit, PC World, January 26, 2015
  27. ↑ "Facebook says it caused fault that sent services offline". BBC News. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  28. ↑ Esther, Lee. "Taylor Swift's Social Media Accounts Hacked, Threatened With Nude Photo Leak: Read Her Response". US Weekly. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  29. ↑ Janis Warren. "Coquitlam teen admits to swatting". Tri City News.
  30. ↑ "Lizard Squad member pleads guilty over 23 counts related to 'swatting'". the Guardian.
  31. ↑ "Krebs on security article on Lizard Squad". Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  32. ↑ "Lizard Squad hacker convicted on 50,000 hacking charges". The Daily Dot. 7 July 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
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