Hackers Who Shutdown PSN & Xbox Live Are Now Gunning For Tor
Even though it is a festive time across the world, hackers are busy plotting out their next big hack. A hackers collective who go by the name “Lizard Squad†are currently working on taking down anonymous browsing service, The Onion Router or Tor. The group had recently claimed that it was responsible for briefly taking down both #-Link-Snipped-# and #-Link-Snipped-# during Christmas day. The hackers were quite bold in their approach as they first informed about #-Link-Snipped-# on their Twitter account and later told Tor how they were going to perform the zero day hack.
The group says on #-Link-Snipped-# that Tor network is being used by #-Link-Snipped-# and it deserves to be taken down. It #-Link-Snipped-# in a tweet and says that it is serving 3000 relay nodes to the Tor Project. If you are aware of Tor, you know that Tor ensures anonymity of the end user by bouncing data packets through various volunteer relays set across the world. Theoretically if someone has control over a substantial amount of relays it is possible to access user information and disrupt communication. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/26/7451293/lizard-squad-hackers-set-sights-on-tor-network" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hackers allegedly behind Xbox and PlayStation network shutdown set sights on Tor - The Verge</a> points out that security researcher and Cryptocat chat client developer Nadim Kobeissi has mentioned <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2qgkzr/tor_why_did_thousands_of_lizardnsa_computers_just/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">[Tor] Why did thousands of "LizardNSA" computers just register as Tor exit nodes? : technology</a> that someone called “LizardNSA†now owns 3000 to 6000 of the total 10000 nodes serving the Tor network. Tor however isn’t worried about this issue. Tor says even if they own a large amount of nodes only one percent of information can pass through them initially. Tor has strict guidelines stating that no new relay can have more than 20kbps of bandwidth for the first three days. They are currently disconnecting any nodes owned by LizardNSA and say that performance and anonymity has not been affected yet.
The Lizard Squad performed the PSN and Xbox Live #-Link-Snipped-# on Christmas day thanks to the rooted undersea routers used on transatlantic cables. They temporarily stopped the attacks once #-Link-Snipped-#, founder of Megaupload now known as Mega promised to gift them Pro 1 annual vouchers with 500 GB storage space worth hundreds of dollars. Once the attacks stopped Kim promised them that those vouchers will be converted into lifetime ones and if they ever laid hands on Xbox Live or PSN again their MEGA accounts will be deactivated. News sources noticed that there were some outages in these gaming console online networks after the deal was struck but Lizard Squad said that they #-Link-Snipped-# as soon as they received their Mega vouchers and any outages were result of the aftermath of the attack.
The group says on #-Link-Snipped-# that Tor network is being used by #-Link-Snipped-# and it deserves to be taken down. It #-Link-Snipped-# in a tweet and says that it is serving 3000 relay nodes to the Tor Project. If you are aware of Tor, you know that Tor ensures anonymity of the end user by bouncing data packets through various volunteer relays set across the world. Theoretically if someone has control over a substantial amount of relays it is possible to access user information and disrupt communication. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/26/7451293/lizard-squad-hackers-set-sights-on-tor-network" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hackers allegedly behind Xbox and PlayStation network shutdown set sights on Tor - The Verge</a> points out that security researcher and Cryptocat chat client developer Nadim Kobeissi has mentioned <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2qgkzr/tor_why_did_thousands_of_lizardnsa_computers_just/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">[Tor] Why did thousands of "LizardNSA" computers just register as Tor exit nodes? : technology</a> that someone called “LizardNSA†now owns 3000 to 6000 of the total 10000 nodes serving the Tor network. Tor however isn’t worried about this issue. Tor says even if they own a large amount of nodes only one percent of information can pass through them initially. Tor has strict guidelines stating that no new relay can have more than 20kbps of bandwidth for the first three days. They are currently disconnecting any nodes owned by LizardNSA and say that performance and anonymity has not been affected yet.
The Lizard Squad performed the PSN and Xbox Live #-Link-Snipped-# on Christmas day thanks to the rooted undersea routers used on transatlantic cables. They temporarily stopped the attacks once #-Link-Snipped-#, founder of Megaupload now known as Mega promised to gift them Pro 1 annual vouchers with 500 GB storage space worth hundreds of dollars. Once the attacks stopped Kim promised them that those vouchers will be converted into lifetime ones and if they ever laid hands on Xbox Live or PSN again their MEGA accounts will be deactivated. News sources noticed that there were some outages in these gaming console online networks after the deal was struck but Lizard Squad said that they #-Link-Snipped-# as soon as they received their Mega vouchers and any outages were result of the aftermath of the attack.
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