JOYLESS XBOX-ING DAY HACK
Vid gamers still offline
Videogame lovers using the Sony Play-Station and Microsoft Xbox felt lingering effects Friday of a calculated attack by cyberterrorists who brought down the online gaming networks on Christmas Day.
Complaints from people itching to play their new PS4 (inset top) or Xbox One (inset bottom) game consoles continued to pour in throughout the day despite the fact that the anonymous hackers, dubbing themselves the Lizard Squad, claimed to have ended their computer assault after being bought off by a tech tycoon.
Using 3,000 lifetime vouchers to his new Web site Mega-Privacy as a bargaining chip, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom got the group to agree to a ceasefire Thursday that saved Christmas for countless online gamers.
But happiness soon turned back to grief as complaints of network issues continued piling up throughout Friday.
Although Microsoft reported Xbox Live was “up and running” on Friday, players were still reporting problems with their service throughout the day.
Sony acknowledged its ongoing Internet issues before lunch, urging people to “follow @AskPlayStation to get the latest updates as we work to restore full network functionality.”
Online gamers were pulling their hair out on Christmas Day when servers first crashed.
The selfdescribed cyber terrorists claimed to be behind the service crash of Play-Station Network and Xbox Live, but failed to give a specific reason for inflicting the attack.
“Lizard Squad taking over,” the hackers tweeted on Dec. 23. “We the Lizards declare ejihad on the Great Satan, the USA. Our enemies shall tremble as we take everything they’ve come to hold dear.”
While media outlets began to report the online problems, Lizard Squad relished in the fact that they had upset so many people during the holidays.
Lizard Squad also appeared to specifically place their cross hairs on Sony during the assault — offering Microsoft gift cards on Twitter and selling Social Security numbers for two specific people for $500, according to Deadline.com.