January 01, 2015
A member of the Lizard Squad hacking group that shutdown the Play Station Network and the Xbox live service networks has been arrested by the UK police.
In these days, we have followed the news related to hacking team known as the Lizard Squad who became famous for having ruined Christmas for millions of users of PSN and Xbox live services.
Two of its members also released a public interview declaring that they have acted for fun and to demonstrate the lack of security of IT giants. In one of the interviews, an alleged member of the Lizard Squad also revealed that that his group has provided data to the GoP that were used to breach the network of Sony Pictures. In the last day of the 2014, the media agency The Daily Dot published the news that UK police has arrested in London an alleged member of the group, Vinnie Omari.
Vinnie Omari, 22-year-old member of the group Lizard Squad, was released from jail on Tuesday, and according to the media agency, no charges have been filed.
“unauthorized computer access with intent to commit other offences.” reads the bail notice.
The police seized every electronic device in his home.
“They took everything,” Omari reported to the Daily Dot in an email. “Xbox one, phones, laptops, computer USBs, etc.”
Security investigator Brian Krebs was one of the first experts who commented on the arrest:
Earlier this week, Brian Krebs revealed the identities of the two alleged members of the hacking group Lizard Squad, who went on TV and the radio. Krebs identified Omari and Julius Kivimäki as members of the hacking collective.
“Member2, the guy that does most of the talking in the BBC interview, appears to be a 22-year-old from the United Kingdom named Vinnie Omari. Sky News ran an on-camera interview with Omari on Dec. 27, quoting him as a “computer security analyst” as he talks about the attacks by Lizard Squad and their supposed feud with a rival hacker gang.” said Krebs.
In time I’m writing there is no news regarding the arrest of the second man identified by Krebs, Julius Kivimäki. The Daily Dot confirmed that The FBI is investigating another Lizard Squad member known as “ryan” or “ryanc” for his participation to the attacks against Xbox Live and PSN.
On Tuesday, Lizard Squad launched an online service called Lizard Stresser that allows customers to launch a DDoS attacks.
The service is available for a price that ranges from $6 to $500, depending on the DDoS attack duration. A Lizard Squad member going by the alias “dragon” told the Daily Dot that the group’s attacks on Sony and Microsoft were simply a “huge marketing scheme” for Lizard Stresser.
One of the Lizard Squad members known as “dragon” told the Daily Dot that the attacks on Sony and Microsoft were simply a “huge marketing scheme” for the Lizard Stresser tool.
UPDATE January 2nd, 2014
“To top it off, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) picked up another alleged member of Lizard Squad later in the week. The 17-year-old, known as “Ryan,” acted as spokesperson for the group in the aftermath of the Christmas attacks. Unlike Omari, Lizard Squad told The Washington Post that Ryan remains in jail.” reports PCWord
“In a statement, Lizard Squad confirmed to the Post that Omari is out on bail, while “Ryan” remains in jail in Finland.” told The Washington Post
(Security Affairs – Lizard Squad, DDoS)
