On Christmas Day, hackers took down the PlayStation and Xbox networks causing gaming children around the world to abandon their game consoles and, maybe — just maybe — go outside.
The hackers had forewarned about the attack.
— Anonymous (@AnonymousGlobo) December 23, 2014
PlayStation internet platform boasts 110 million subscribers while Xbox's 48 million gamers use Xbox's.
— Anonymous (@AnonymousGlobo) December 26, 2014
The hackers did not offer reasons for the latest attack, but Amazon has come under renewed scrutiny during the shopping season for harsh working conditions. The hackers also targeted pornography sites releasing personal information from their users as well.
— Anonymous (@AnonymousGlobo) December 26, 2014
The information was released in a massive text file posted on Ghostbin, a document sharing site. They later offered free downloads for Sony’s The Interview.
— Anonymous (@AnonymousGlobo) December 26, 2014
Some Anonymous members took to Twitter to say the #LulzXmas hack was not officially Anonymous and a group calling itself LizardSquad claimed responsibility.
However, Anonymous has no centralized leadership but rather functions as a loose affiliation of hackers that join together for various purposes including attacking the KKK and releasing the names of accused rapists.
LizardSquad doubled down later on Saturday offering credits for PlayStation users who were hit by the Christmas Day hack.
— Lizard Squad (@TheeVibe) December 27, 2014