Kim Dotcom Gets Group to Stop Attacks on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network
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iStock Editorial/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — An eccentric Internet entrepreneur singlehandedly may have managed to save gamers around the world — and Christmas — from a hacking collective known as “Lizard Squad.”
Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network both suffered outages Christmas Day that extended into Friday, frustrating gamers who were unable to enjoy their consoles for the holiday.
It seems all it took for Lizard Squad to call off the attacks the group said it perpetrated on the gaming networks was a little diplomacy from MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom.
The multimillionaire, who is based in New Zealand, is embattled in his own legal woes. He is expected to find out early next year whether he’ll be extradited to the United States, where he is wanted on charges related to piracy, copyright infringement and racketeering.
Dotcom, who changed him name from Kim Schmitz, has said he is not guilty.
Under the deal Lizard Squad said it reached with Dotcom, the group received 3,000 premium MegaPrivacy vouchers from Dotcom’s company, which allows them end-to-end encryption and secure storage services.
While it appeared both networks were still dark Friday morning, Lizard Squad tweeted it had stopped its distributed “denial of service” attacks and said the current downtime is “just the aftermath.”
Neither Microsoft nor Sony blamed the problem on hackers. Both companies said they were investigating the problems.
Earlier this month, the Lizard Squad claimed it hacked Sony’s PlayStation Store.
The group previously claimed responsibility for cyberattacks that briefly knocked the Vatican’s website, Battle.net and League of Legends offline.
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