Notes

Hack Attack on Sony And Xbox

Xbox, Sony hackers hit by hack attack



20 January 2015



Lizard Squad hacking group was victimized by a shambolic attack that exposed the entire database of users.



The group claimed to have knocked the Xbox and PlayStation gaming networks offline during Christmas.



It soon established a website that allowed anyone who paid for its software to flood other sites with data.



The attack that exposed the customer's list is just one of many targeted at the group or its tools.



Address list



Investigative journalist Brian Krebs broke the news that the database that powers the Lizard Stresser tool was compromised. The Stresser let users who paid make use of it to overload websites or kick people offline by bombarding the websites they were using with their personal data.



Krebs did not provide a name. Krebs did not specify who got at the data , but said he had acquired an entire roster of 14,241 people who signed up.



Anyone who visited the Stresser website was warned of the attack via a message on the main page's login box that urged users to change the password they had created when they registered.



Krebs stated in a blog entry that the Lizard Squad had not taken enough precautions to safeguard the login and contact details provided by users.



"All registered usernames and passwords were stored in plain text," said Mr Krebs, adding that only a few hundred of the users who signed up paid for the service.



Tech news site Ars Technica also got hold of the database dump, which was briefly posted on the Mega file-sharing system. It stated that most people who used it were gamers trying to stop their competitors from playing a specific game. Minecraft servers were a popular user of Stresser according to the report.



Ars Technica stated that the dump of the database could cause problems for anyone who used it, since many IP addresses were not properly hidden and could be recovered with a little effort.



The theft of the database comes soon after other experts in computer science dismantled the tools Lizard Squad has been using. One exposed the source code of a program that was used to attack people on IRC chat networks.



Eric Zhang, a computer science student was able to quickly enumerate all the names of those who signed up for Stresser using a very simple script.



"That took only 10 minutes to do," he said.



He said he wasn't surprised that the entire database had been plundered because when he checked the site, public access to the server behind it hadn't been shut off.



He stated that the site was run by a person who had no formal knowledge of software engineering.



"Most of what they're doing isn't very impressive," he said. Info "Anyone can do it. It's all it takes is time.



Mr. Krebs said that Lizard Squad was being targeted because security personnel were irritated by their sudden fame.



He said that there was a general consensus in the security sector that these men are way out of their minds. If we don't bring to justice a handful of teens from Western countries who are rubbing it in everybody's faces, it's an unsettling situation.



He added that the time it took to conduct investigations and locate members of the group had helped the group survive. Recent arrests of Lizard Squad members seemed only to have scooped up some of its hangers-on but had let a few remaining members of the group remain at large.



UK man is arrested in connection with Sony hack



16 January 2015



Sony hackers 'shared' stolen logins



30 December 2014



Xbox and PlayStation rebuilding service



27 December 2014



Brian Krebs



Eric Zhang


Website: https://pessoa.info/