Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Lizard Squad Bomb Threat Diverts Sony Exec's Plane To Phoenix

Posted by timothy on from the derring-doo-doo dept.

As if cutting off from their games millions of users wasn't enough for the day, Forbes reports that [the] hacker collective (or individual) known as the “Lizard Squad” succeeded in taking offline many gaming services including Blizzard’s Battle.net and Sony PSN. But things took a turn from irritating DDoS attacks to another level of harassment earlier this afternoon when the group took to Twitter to announce publicly that it a believed the flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley had explosives on board. The flight had been bound from Dallas to San Diego, but in response to the bomb threat, the plane was diverted to Phoenix.

19 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Aaaand there goes the lizard squad by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pissing off game companies is one thing. Getting the DHS involved is another entirely. They've just brought a level of hell down on themselves they are woefully unprepared to deal with.

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    1. Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Outlandish Claim? Check
      Zero Evidence? Check.
      Impossible to refute? Check.

      Yes, sir, we have a typical conspiracy theory.

    2. Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Agreed.
      I can't mod this + enough.
      There seems to be a sort of collective dismissal of the power of government in hacker circles, as if the fact that some faceless bureaucrat in a lowly department failing to deploy a firewall to protect trivial information, or the FBI wasting billion$ on a worthless systems upgrade, were representative of the technological competency of the whole of the US gov't.

      I doubt that's the case.

      What people fail to understand is that the government is *huge* and as easy as it is to find laughable examples of waste, abuse, and outright incompetence, that's only one end of the bell curve.

      The OTHER end has incredibly competent people, giant fat gobs of money, and a wealth of resources that beggar the imagination (ie if they need something and cannot ask for or buy it, they can resort to overt legalities like subpoenas, or not-so-legal methods like property condemnation, deportation, or IRS audits) to compel behavior in pursuit of their goals. Further, the great bulk of the US populace (ie not the very vocal 0.01% on internet chat boards) is IN FAVOR OF LAW AND ORDER, full stop, and will cheerfully volunteer cooperation to "the authorities" however they can. The US federal gov't has tremendous credibility with most of the population.

      My point is enthusiastically reiterating the OP: it's one thing to hack some nerd-gamer servers, but when you attack the infrastructure of the US (and make no mistake, that's what this was) you will come to the attention of the 'sharp, pointy' end of the bellcurve.

      Good luck with that.

      --
      -Styopa
    3. Re: Aaaand there goes the lizard squad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good point, now that one conspiracy theory has been proven correct we can safely toss all critical thinking out the window and accept every other half-wit conspiracy that appears on the internet.

    4. Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad by Type44Q · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The US federal gov't has tremendous credibility with most of the population.

      Oops. You were actually doing quite well until you screwed-up by blurting-out the above load of nonsense: as gullible and dumb as most of the population is, Uncle Sam hardly has "tremendous credibility with most of them."

    5. Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh, I'd wager they're almost certainly in the US, or at least another relatively wealthy country with an extradition treaty. They're also probably a bunch of teenage males from moderately well-off families, and who have far more free time and impotent angst than good sense. Anyone living in an area with lots of real-world problems as opposed to first-world problems wouldn't bother targeting videogame companies or Sony executives.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Twit....ter by Himmy32 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Looking at Lizard Squad's twitter feed they have the maturity level of about a screaming toddler. The obvious lack of thinking is painful. They see these things as just pranks and a way to make a political statement. But bomb threats and DDoS attacks are a good way to waste your prime years in prison.

  3. Poor John Smedley by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know what's worse: being blown out of the sky with explosives or having to stay in Phoenix.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Poor John Smedley by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Funny

      Having to stay in Phoenix *with a Sony exec*. It's like cramming two levels of Hell together into one Boss Level of Hell.

    2. Re:Poor John Smedley by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Funny

      And that Boss Level of Hell won't even load because the PSN is down.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
  4. What's the point of a hack like this? by timrod · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just don't get why someone would be willing to commit criminal activity like they did just to annoy some people. It's not exactly a show of skill - PSN has been a low-hanging fruit for DDoS attacks since forever - and it's clearly not making them any money. I'm sure there's also ways they could've annoyed people more without having DHS coming after them for calling in a bomb threat. If I had a DDoS-capable botnet I'd at least do something fun with it, like spam mobile email addresses with fake CNN updates purporting that Christ has risen and he's declared the Year of the Linux Desktop.

    1. Re:What's the point of a hack like this? by xmousex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I guess anyone clever enough to do something intelligent or useful with these attacks would also be smart enough not to bother.

  5. The Faux News of Geekdom by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seems quite possible that Sony just offered a lot of money to one of these script kiddies so that the authorities would be incentivised to do the corporation's dirty work.

    The offer will never materialise.

    I can't prove it, but I can say it. - Stephen Colbert

    Slashdot, where nerds forget The Law of Parsimony.

  6. Way to taunt the Juggernaut by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pissing off game companies is one thing. Getting the DHS involved is another entirely. They've just brought a level of hell down on themselves they are woefully unprepared to deal with.

    My thoughts exactly. These kids better find a cave or a hole on the ground somewhere near the Khyber Pass or Timbuktu. Making bomb threats/pranks? There is a whole lot of angry coming right at them right now, the likes you can only escape by being a government entity, not some stupid script kiddie.

  7. US Code, Title 18, Part I, Chp 40 844 -Penalties by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 5, Informative

    But things took a turn from irritating DDoS attacks to another level of harassment earlier this afternoon when the group took to Twitter to announce publicly that it a believed the flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley had explosives on board.

    From US Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 40 844 - Penalties

    (e) Whoever, through the use of the mail, telephone, telegraph, or other instrument of interstate or foreign commerce, or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, willfully makes any threat, or maliciously conveys false information knowing the same to be false, concerning an attempt or alleged attempt being made, or to be made, to kill, injure, or intimidate any individual or unlawfully to damage or destroy any building, vehicle, or other real or personal property by means of fire or an explosive shall be imprisoned for not more than 10 years or fined under this title, or both.

    This is not including whatever state laws that were violated on top of Federal laws. One (well deserving) word: Darwin.

  8. Re:Misleading headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    yeah, the same way the maffia would tell you: "it's a nice little shop you have there, I heard something bad could happen to it, like a fire, or a bomb. Want me to check on you once in a while ? you know just to be sure you're safe and all ?"

    it's not like they would ever threaten anyone. Just relaying some hearsay and proposing some help.

  9. Re:Misleading headline by gnasher719 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They said they've been receiving reports about a bomb on the plane, not that they put one there. They didn't make a bomb threat; they relayed one.

    They better have proof that they received a bomb threat then.

  10. The real hack by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everyone seems to think this was no big deal... it was just a DDOS and the use of a phone! etc...

    My question is: How did they know what flight Smeadly was on? That right there is the scary bit...

    1. Re:The real hack by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Its pretty easy - Smeadly said he was going offline on a flight that had no wifi on twitter and that he was heading back to San Diego - he also said this on twitter. So all you have to do is figure out what convention Smeadly was at yesterday - so you know the originating city - and I'm guessing maybe there were a couple flights a day from there to SD.

      Its a guess, but its a pretty educated one.

      This is like first level private eye stuff here - people really assume everything they do is private, and then they give people clues publicly where they are without a second thought - and then it looks all hackerish like these guys have l33t skills.