PlayStation Network: PS4 and PS3 fans warned DDOS attack on the way after Xbox Live outage

PS4 and PS3 users have been warned of a fresh PSN DDOS attack in December

 

Last year saw a widespread outage affect both consoles which was implemented by an online group calling themselves Lizard Squad.

And 2015 could see a similar DDOS attack hit fans after a new group appeared to threaten both Microsoft and Sony with the same outcome for their online gaming infrastructures.

Called Phantom Squad, the group recently took credit for an outage affecting the Xbox Live network late on Thursday evening.

Many users were unable to access core services for several hours and will likely be anxious to avoid a repeat of last year's December 25 and 26 outages.

 

Last Christmas proved to be a misery for millions of gamers after both Sony and Microsoft were targeted by hackers, bringing down the PlayStation Network (PSN) and Xbox Live services for days.

Hacking group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack, which saw outages caused after servers were overloaded with information.

This type of cyber attack is known as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, and one computer expert warned it is far too easily carried out.

PSN is next... RT if you don't want this to happen.

— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 18, 2015

The PlayStation Network was hit hard last year by a DDOS attack

Computer security expert Kevin Curran said tools are readily available to carry out DDoS attacks and as long as they are so accessible, PS4 and Xbox One networks – as well as many other systems - are at risk.
"These attacks for now are hard to stop as free simple-to-use tools make it easy to flood sites with overwhelming amounts of dummy traffic.
"You simply enter the URL of a website, and watch these free programmes generate fake packets so as to overload a site's servers.
"You can watch the average site being brought to its knees in minutes."
 

Xbox Live appears to have been hit by a fresh DDOS attack on Thursday