Lizard Squad Offering DDoS Attacks That Took Down Xbox Live, PSN For Sale

Lizard Squad, the hacker group claiming responsibility for taking down gaming networks Xbox Live and PlayStation Network on Dec. 25, is now offering its hacking services for hire, according to the Daily Dot, which received a direct message from the group via Twitter.

This isn’t the first time the hacktivist group has wreaked havoc in the realm of video games. In August, Lizard Squad also diverted a plane carrying Sony Online Entertainment head John Smedley by issuing a bomb threat on Twitter. The group laid low for a few months, but now they’ve returned with a bang.

The recent attacks turned out to be a twisted form of advertisement for a tool called “Lizard Stresser,” a way of testing whether your own network could hold up to a similar distributed denial-of-service attack. This attack utilizes a network of computers to overwhelm servers with requests, resulting in them shutting down.

Many websites have online security professionals who make sure company sites are secure by hacking into them and identifying weak areas, but Lizard Squad’s latest attention-grabbing antics are testaments to the power of cyberwarfare. In 2014, Lizard Squad, which has aligned itself with the Islamic State group, has taken down a number of online networks, including “World of Warcraft,” “League of Legends” and EA Online.

“Microsoft and Sony are f------ retarded, literally monkeys behind computers,” a Lizard Squad member who identified himself as Omari told the Daily Dot on Friday. “They would have better luck if they actually hired someone who knew what they were doing. Like, if they went around prisons and hired people who were convicted for stuff like this, they would have a better chance at preventing attacks.”

Lizard Squad is currently accepting payments in bitcoin, and PayPal is coming soon, according to its Facebook page. And it looks like there may just be a market for what the group is selling.