FBI

Photo: @maxmoefoe

Despite tweeting out a bomb threat to ground a Sony executive's flight this Sunday and landing themselves on the radar of the FBI, hacking group 'Lizard Squad' remains unmolested and continues to orchestrate attacks on various gaming services.

After targeting Sony's PSN, Microsoft's Xbox Live, Riot Games' League of Legends and Blizzard's Battle.net, the group turned their attention toward livestream site Twitch, in the wake of the company's acquisition by Amazon this week.

The streaming service hosts thousands of gamers who stream gameplay for an audience of millions, and has grown so enormous that a $1B offer from Amazon seemed like a reasonable price. Yesterday, the service came under fire from the hacking group which hasn't stopped boasting about its exploits since the attacks started this past weekend.

The group recruited popular Twitch streamers/YouTubers like Sky Williams, MaxMoeFoe (above) and Mia Rose to write 'Lizard Squad' on their forehead, and tweet them a picture. When enough of these streamers obliged, they relented their attacks on the service.

The obvious question here is why this group is still online and able to continue these sorts of disruptions, not only after a string of DDoS attacks but in the wake of tweeting a bomb scare to an American airline, the sort of offense that one might think could land you in a deep, dark hole somewhere.

The answer? These investigations take time, even for the FBI. If I had to guess, judging by the group's braggadocio about not fearing the Feds, and constant references to 9/11 and ISIS, they are not based in the US. They might not be in Iraq, as they claim, but if they're abroad anywhere, obviously that complicates things. The US government would have to collaborate with other countries to see them caught, which would take more time than if they were simply able to handle things entirely as a domestic matter.

The Lizard Squad has turned into something of a fascination for the gaming community, who seems both simultaneously annoyed and bemused by them. It's irritating to have these services taken down by these kinds of attacks, but some in the community seem to be attempting to play into the group's games, as evidenced by more than a few foreheads with a certain reptilian identifier etched on them.

The constant attacks on these services would likely see the group caught eventually anyway, but the airline bomb scare is something that will serve to expedite that process. That's obviously the most serious of their offenses, but each new attack on a service only adds to the laundry list of charges being racked up by the individual or individuals.

At this point, any prolonged break in tweeting from the group comes with the hope that perhaps they've been apprehended, but in all likelihood they may just be sleeping. I'm not sure how easy they can rest knowing who is hunting for them, however.

Unfortunately, this story continues to develop, so stay tuned here for updates.

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