This year a popular gift for many was a next-generation gaming console. The two most popular consoles are Microsoft’s XBox One and Sony’s Playstation 4. Both consoles feature increased hardware specs with better graphics and other features along with a number of new games. However, one key feature for both consoles is the network the devices connect to in order to power online game play and other features.
On Christmas Eve both the XBox Live and Playstation Network were targeted in a DDoS attack, apparently by a group called LizardSquad. They attack brought both networks down for more than 24 hours. And so a Denial of Service Attack will harness the Internet connectivity of many hacked or misconfigured systems (owned by other people) that may be infected with malware or virus’ so that those systems are forced to simultaneously flood a target network with junk internet traffic. The goal, of course, is to prevent legitimate visitors from being able to load the site or or use the service under attack. Therefore, that is why gamers could not setup or sign into their consoles Christmas morning.
This tells us that most software and knowledge on how to hack is widely available online for anyone to find. It also tells us that larger companies like Microsoft and Sony in particular need to beef up their security and internet connected servers. Take Target last year and Home Depot this year as other examples of how vulnerable large companies can be. I would think that the larger you are as a company the bigger the target you will be.
As it stands right now reports are stating that only the service was interrupted and nothing was compromised. Most Denial of Service Attacks are mainly used to stop a service from working. Be that as it may, though it was a different type of attack, it took both Target and Home Depot many months after their attack to determine and state in the news that their users information was compromised. So I wold remain cautious and wait to see if any further developments come forward.
