Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Draco
Sony wasn't hacked, before you start complaining know the difference. They suffered from a DDoS attack. In layman's terms they pinged the servers millions of times a second until the system overloaded and shut down (the same way old computers use to do if you ran too many things at once). You can't prevent this type of an attack. And as already mentioned the group did this to MS's servers first and then did it to Sony.
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This.
They are calling themselves the Lizard Squad.
You can't stop a DDos attack. Although, you can make it harder to bring down by purchasing more bandwidth.
And as he mentioned, the it's not a hack. Hacking is usually involved though to gain access to the zombie machines they use to make the attacks. A lot of hackers use this as a method of attacking as server, but it usually only results in disruption of service; although some attacks can mess up the OS, etc. When a ddos attack is executed, the server is overloaded with connections, so new connections can no longer be accepted (hence you not being able to access sony playstation network).
Also, you mentioned prosecuting the attacker. It's not always that easy as they will use proxies. Basically highjacking other computers or going through 1000s of other servers. This makes it almost impossible to trace back to them. And to add on to it, there are usually hundreds or thousands of other attackers involved. One person could perform a ddos attack if they had hijacked enough computers, but it's highly likely that there are way more involved.
XBox live was attacked on christmas, but they had it up and running next day since they are so much better than Sony lol.
Lizard Squad says the attacks are just amusing to them and they are also highlighting the security weaknesses of the systems.