Lizard Squad: ‘Law Enforcement Knows Where We Are, We Have Free Passes’
If you got a new Playstation 4 or Xbox One for Christmas, you’re likely familiar with the name “Lizard Squad.” They’re the group that used DDoS attacks on Sony and Microsoft on Christmas Day to prevent gamers from accessing the network and being able to enjoy their new toys. They’ve also been pretty open about their identities.
The group ended their attacks after Kim Schmitz, better known as Kim Dotcom, secured lifetime passes for the members on his own site, Mega, an encrypted upload service. Forbes reports that a second, separate Lizard Squad account later took credit for further attacks on the Playstation network and Xbox Live, though the first continued to deny it. It’s leading to worries that Kim Dotcom may have set a bad precedent, and opened the door for hostage hacking.
As for Lizard Squad, they’re laughing it up on Twitter about being untouchable. The primary Lizard Squad account associated with the recent attacks, and connected to further attacks on the Tor network (essentially a network of servers that work to ensure privacy online) has been promising “a new release,” presumably the next round of attack.
Late Saturday night, they retweeted a post by an IT guy by the screen name of rootworx. The post was one in a series of tweets about CNN’s coverage of the attacks, with commentary about the difference between “breaking into” a network and issuing DDoS attacks. This post, though, addressed the identity of the Lizard Squad. The initial post was on Friday.
.@CNN: “Will law enforcement be able to find Lizard Squad?” LE knows exactly where they are. They’re all foreign nationals with free passes
— r000t (@rootworx) December 26, 2014
On Saturday evening, between 10:30 and 11:15 p.m. Eastern, Lizard Squad retweeted it, following it with a response.
@rootworx @CNN The feds have been trying to extradite my a** for years now.
Though the Lizard Squad has been “doxed” online, they aren’t exactly quiet about their identities and locations. The member behind the R.I.U. Lizard Squad account, for instance, states his name in his description, and has posted his location, within Canada, elsewhere on the internet. (Of course, the doxings include more personal information, and this in no way indicates that doxing is justified — only that Lizard Squad members are not secretive about their locations or names.)
It’s clear that, whatever their next plan is, the Lizard Squad isn’t worried about law enforcement, and does feel confident that they’re safe from justice.
[photo credit: leiapico]
