Sony and Microsoft games network hack

Both the Sony an Microsoft games network servers have been badly disrupted from Christmas day. The cyber vandals Lizard Squad have admitted responsibility.

This outage has nothing to do with millions of new games consoles being unwrapped and connected at the same time. Oh dear me no. Their network servers would have taken the huge spike in workload in their stride. This is definitely something to blame on those awful hactivists, and any suggestion that it was teetering on the brink and all it needed was a little push is a foul slur on the competence of Microsoft and Sony.

The extent to which Lizard Squad was involved may be in question, but major respect for the expert way they’ve played the media. Again.

North Korea Refuses to Deny Sony Cyber Attack

The popular media is in a frenzy – those dastardly North Koreans have launched a cyber-attack on Sony, pinched a lot of films and posted them on-line in revenge against the company for a disrespectful comedy making fun of their glorious leader. According to the BBC, they have refused to deny the attack, with a spokesman saying “Wait and see.”

The north Koreans must be loving this – they were, apparently, pretty hacked off about the depiction of Kim Jong-un. They have no sense of humour as far as he’s concerned. However, this bears all the hallmarks of a bunch of script kiddies ripping off a load of films to add to the pirate haul. The North Korean’s response, when doorstepped about the incident, suggests to me that they think their “enemy’s” predicament is hilarious, but stops well short of taking credit for it. Why would they be so coy? Because when the real culprits break cover they’d look stupid.

Yes, it could have been the North Koreans, but they’re not exactly high-tech. As far as I can tell there are only about a thousand IP addresses for the whole country. If it were China in the frame, I could believe it. Would the Chinese pull a stunt in support of their southern “friends” – I somehow doubt that; not over a film.

Given the extensive nature of the compromise, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an inside job. Did the people involved set out to purpetrate the hack of the decade? There’ll be trouble now.