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Phantom Squad threatens to take down PSN and Xbox Live this Christmas

A

Alvarez

Banned
They sort of have a point: The only reason they're able to do this (launch DDOS attacks) is because there are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are infected with malware they are able to exploit. That's a huge general security problem that no one ever talks about--until PSN goes down for months.

These security failures, these threats and attacks are the only things that ever draw significant attention to cyber security.

The unfortunate thing is that that significant attention is seemingly not enough to get anyone to change their security habits.

American entities have been forced to up various components of their infrastructure because of groups like this--and yet American internet infrastructure is still way behind the rest of the world's.

That Asia's internet is so much better than ours is a terrifying prospect. What are we going to do when China decides to launch a real DDOS attack against large American networks--an attack empowered by, you know, fiber?

I'm not saying that Whatever Squad are heroes. I'm saying that, unfortunately, they're the villains American internet security needs.
 
K

kevin1025

Banned
EA's servers are down, either because of DDOS or because of Christmas Eve influx? No one is certain yet. But I'd say probably best to be prepared for Xbox Live and PSN to be next in the next few hours :(
 
W

Westraid

Member
I had all my single player games updated, and with my backlog I could go without Live for a whole year lol. Still, sucks that people would sink that low to ruin things for others.
I'm going to sit this out with Fallout 4 and if things last long, Witcher 3 got my back.

Hope that those who are affected don't take it out on the people working support.
Read some twitter conversations last year and it was disgusting how they were treated.
 
R

RPGamer92

Banned
My question is why do this during Christmas? Aren't servers probably gonna go down more to new user influx than DDOS or hacking?
 
S

spectator

Member
Alvarez said:
They sort of have a point: The only reason they're able to do this (launch DDOS attacks) is because there are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are infected with malware they are able to exploit. That's a huge general security problem that no one ever talks about--until PSN goes down for months.

These security failures, these threats and attacks are the only things that ever draw significant attention to cyber security.
Click to expand...

Sure- more of a problem happening makes more people aware of that problem. I'm not sure I'd really call that "a point".

If I keep beating people over the head, maybe everyone will start wearing helmets all the time and then there won't be any more head injuries.

Or, I could just not beat people over the head in the first place.
 
T

TheWorthyEdge

Member
I have a PSN question!

I got my brother to put his PSN account on my PS4. Am I allowed to buy him a game from his account with my card and then have the game download to his PS4?
 
C

ClearData

Member
Alvarez said:
They sort of have a point: The only reason they're able to do this (launch DDOS attacks) is because there are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are infected with malware they are able to exploit. That's a huge general security problem that no one ever talks about--until PSN goes down for months.

These security failures, these threats and attacks are the only things that ever draw significant attention to cyber security.

The unfortunate thing is that that significant attention is seemingly not enough to get anyone to change their security habits.

American entities have been forced to up various components of their infrastructure because of groups like this--and yet American internet infrastructure is still way behind the rest of the world's.

That Asia's internet is so much better than ours is a terrifying prospect. What are we going to do when China decides to launch a real DDOS attack against large American networks--an attack empowered by, you know, fiber?

I'm not saying that Whatever Squad are heroes. I'm saying that, unfortunately, they're the villains American internet security needs.
Click to expand...

Swear to me.
 
K

kitch9

Banned
RPGamer92 said:
My question is why do this during Christmas? Aren't servers probably gonna go down more to new user influx than DDOS or hacking?
Click to expand...

The servers will already be busy, means that the attack will be straight onto the Ddos mitigation servers without psn servers helping out.
 
D

Dragon

Banned
Alvarez said:
They sort of have a point: The only reason they're able to do this (launch DDOS attacks) is because there are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are infected with malware they are able to exploit. That's a huge general security problem that no one ever talks about--until PSN goes down for months.

These security failures, these threats and attacks are the only things that ever draw significant attention to cyber security.

The unfortunate thing is that that significant attention is seemingly not enough to get anyone to change their security habits.

American entities have been forced to up various components of their infrastructure because of groups like this--and yet American internet infrastructure is still way behind the rest of the world's.

That Asia's internet is so much better than ours is a terrifying prospect. What are we going to do when China decides to launch a real DDOS attack against large American networks--an attack empowered by, you know, fiber?

I'm not saying that Whatever Squad are heroes. I'm saying that, unfortunately, they're the villains American internet security needs.
Click to expand...

But Russia and China have way more compromised computers. After all that's where most botnets are.
 
B

Boogdud

Member
Alvarez said:
They sort of have a point: The only reason they're able to do this (launch DDOS attacks) is because there are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are infected with malware they are able to exploit. That's a huge general security problem that no one ever talks about--until PSN goes down for months.

These security failures, these threats and attacks are the only things that ever draw significant attention to cyber security.

The unfortunate thing is that that significant attention is seemingly not enough to get anyone to change their security habits.

American entities have been forced to up various components of their infrastructure because of groups like this--and yet American internet infrastructure is still way behind the rest of the world's.

That Asia's internet is so much better than ours is a terrifying prospect. What are we going to do when China decides to launch a real DDOS attack against large American networks--an attack empowered by, you know, fiber?

I'm not saying that Whatever Squad are heroes. I'm saying that, unfortunately, they're the villains American internet security needs.
Click to expand...

This would all be well and great, if there was any good defense to a DDOS other than failing shut, which is what the services are already doing. It just pisses people off, that want to use the service. This isn't some glorified group of security professionals seeking out a solution. These are a bunch of petulant children looking for attention.

This is a group of wanna be script kiddies renting out foreign ddos bots so they can watch their friends whine and complain on twitter over Christmas break and see their names on gaming sites. Nothing more.
 
MafiaMurderBag

MafiaMurderBag

Member
Was having problems on GTA online earlier. Was hoping it was some coincidental buggyness. Please don't let it be these sad fucks again..
 
G

gatti-man

Member
Boogdud said:
This would all be well and great, if there was any good defense to a DDOS other than failing shut, which is what the services are already doing. It just pisses people off, that want to use the service. This isn't some glorified group of security professionals seeking out a solution. These are a bunch of petulant children looking for attention.

This is a group of wanna be script kiddies renting out foreign ddos bots so they can watch their friends whine and complain on twitter over Christmas break and see their names on gaming sites. Nothing more.
Click to expand...

Exactly. People need to understand ddos mitigation on a massive scale is massively expensive. Not much MS and Sony can do about it if the DDOS is large enough.
 
T

Thebeardofknowledge

Banned
Alvarez said:
They sort of have a point: The only reason they're able to do this (launch DDOS attacks) is because there are hundreds of millions of computers around the world that are infected with malware they are able to exploit. That's a huge general security problem that no one ever talks about--until PSN goes down for months.

These security failures, these threats and attacks are the only things that ever draw significant attention to cyber security.

The unfortunate thing is that that significant attention is seemingly not enough to get anyone to change their security habits.

American entities have been forced to up various components of their infrastructure because of groups like this--and yet American internet infrastructure is still way behind the rest of the world's.

That Asia's internet is so much better than ours is a terrifying prospect. What are we going to do when China decides to launch a real DDOS attack against large American networks--an attack empowered by, you know, fiber?

I'm not saying that Whatever Squad are heroes. I'm saying that, unfortunately, they're the villains American internet security needs.
Click to expand...

But Psn never went down for months because ddos
 
A

Alvarez

Banned
gatti-man said:
Exactly. People need to understand ddos mitigation on a massive scale is massively expensive. Not much MS and Sony can do about it if the DDOS is large enough.
Click to expand...

Trying to weather a DDOS attack is crazy because it's impossible. The goal needs to be a heightened global awareness of how to prevent malware infection. The DDOS attacks will diminish when there are less vulnerable computers.
 
J

_jnup

Member
For some reason I can't activate my PS4 as the primary console. I already deactivated all systems through the site, so I can't use that option. Probably won't be able to play any of my downloadable games then.
 
A

astroturfing

Member
joke's on them, i can't even get online on my ps4 where i'm spending my christmas, so i'm just playing Fallout 4 and maybe MGS5 offline. good luck trying to ruin my fun!

man i'm glad we don't have consoles that require you to be always online.. really dodged a bullet there.
 
L

LapinAgile

Member
astroturfing said:
joke's on them, i can't even get online on my ps4 where i'm spending my christmas, so i'm just playing Fallout 4 and maybe MGS5 offline. good luck trying to ruin my fun!

man i'm glad we don't have consoles that require you to be always online.. really dodged a bullet there.
Click to expand...

Seriously. There's plenty of offline alternatives on both to dampen the impact they have.
 
K

KyleCross

Member
darkwing said:
it's crazy, what do they hope to accomplish
Click to expand...

aEUzwvf.gif
 
C

coolasj19

Why are you reading my tag instead of the title of my post?
Well, I've been looking for an excuse to play Batman and go buy One Piece PW3. I've got plenty of games. Only part that's gonna suck is my Madden Franchise is online. If the sale is still up Monday I'll finally go buy Destiny. Friendly tip, do any downloading you need to do, tonight. My PS4 and Vita is fully stocked already.
 
T

The Last Wizard

Member
spectator said:
Sure- more of a problem happening makes more people aware of that problem. I'm not sure I'd really call that "a point".

If I keep beating people over the head, maybe everyone will start wearing helmets all the time and then there won't be any more head injuries.

Or, I could just not beat people over the head in the first place.
Click to expand...
lol l, love the analogy.
 
S

sora87

Member
If they wanted to prove PSN and XBL are lacking in security then they should attempt to actually hack accounts, DDoS attacks have nothing to do with account security
 
B

Born2Live

Member
Glad I've got Xenoblade along with Divinity Original Sin, Fallout, and MGSV to tackle over the Christmas period. Screw these guys and their pathetic attention seeking antics.
 
Pokemaniac

Pokemaniac

Member
Normally I'd get annoyed with the whole ignoring Nintendo thing, but I think this is one case where I can make an exception.
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
RPGamer92 said:
My question is why do this during Christmas? Aren't servers probably gonna go down more to new user influx than DDOS or hacking?
Click to expand...

Because they are "hackers" so shitty they can't even take down a network if it isn't in the most busy period in the year. Basically Christmas itself is already doing 90% of their work.
 
EGOMON

EGOMON

Member
TheWorthyEdge said:
I have a PSN question!

I got my brother to put his PSN account on my PS4. Am I allowed to buy him a game from his account with my card and then have the game download to his PS4?
Click to expand...

Yes he just need to login to his account and download the game from the library
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
Mr Dotcom said if the online games were hacked it would entirely be the tech company's fault as they had been given plenty of time to prepare for a repeat attack.

"I managed to strike a deal with the hackers last year to stop the attack. I doubt I will be able to do it again. I bought Sony and Microsoft time to upgrade their networks. Let's hope they used that time wisely."
Click to expand...

And you were dumb to do that because you enabled more to do this for your money. And by your response, you're willing to do it again.
 
spons

spons

Gold Member
Not really surprising if PSN goes down since it has the stability and speed of a home server hosted in someone's basement, while you wait three days to download a random game from the godforsaken thing.
 
B

Bulk_Rate

Member
On the Wii U front, not specifically worried about hackers but should I expect the Nintendo online system to be overwhelmed?

I bought it for my kids along w/ Kart8 and Splattoon -- just wondering whether I should even bother to connect it online Xmas day? Don't want to be stuck in system update hell etc.
 
Bucket-o-roadkill

Bucket-o-roadkill

Member
Taking down the networks at the time of year I'm mostly exclusively offline whilst playing games locally with family and friends? OK kids, have fun. Seriously though, MS and Sony got through this before without too much heat, make no mistake, they had better be more prepared for this shit now or surely they're going to look incredibly amateurish.
 
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