Between Anonymous, the Syrian Electronic Army, and various forms of what was once LulzSec — there are a lot of hacking groups out there to keep track of. Well, here’s one more for you, the Lizard Squad.
(Video via YouTube / The Lizard Squad)
So far the group has made countless references to lizards, told people to write "Lizard Squad" on their forehead and has gone after multiple gaming companies including Riot, Blizzard, Twitch and Sony.
And it's that last company that started netting the Lizard Squad some national attention after the group called in a bomb threat involving a Sony exec.
CNN: "An American Airlines flight with a Sony executive onboard was forced to land ... after the same group reportedly sent out a tweet claiming there were explosives on that airplane."
The bomb threat targeted Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley shortly after the exec tweeted that the SOE network was under a denial-of-service attack — something the group took credit for while also claiming solidarity with the militant group ISIS.
That stunt was enough to catch the FBI’s attention. Sony representatives say federal agents are now investigating the matter.
So we've got DDoS attacks, bomb scares and affiliation with a terrorist group — who exactly are these hackers? Well, for one, they may not even really be hackers.
According to Motherboard, their claims of taking down Sony's servers run parallel to another hacker who goes by the name "Famed God." The writer suggests Lizard Squad took credit for his work and is more akin to a trolling group than actual hackers.
And a writer at The Daily Dot notes that, even though it seems the group is using DDoS to take down sites and services, "The attack doesn’t win you much respect —actually, it just got Lizard Squad derided by hackers who see DDoS attacks as amateur 'script kiddie' stuff."
Location-wise, a Forbes writer guesses they're outside the U.S. given their multiple references to 9/11 and apparent disregard for being investigated by the FBI. While he notes how that would hinder a federal investigation, it may not be enough to protect them forever.
ABC spoke with a hacking culture analyst who told them, "I think if you look at history, you will see a lot of the loudest and most obnoxious members of Anonymous and LulzSec are all in jail or awaiting a hearing. It’s not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."
As for Smedley, the target of their bomb threat — he gives them a year until they're caught.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
