Lizard Squad member claims Phantom Squad could attack Xbox Live and PSN this Christmas

The new hacking collective Phantom Squad could attack the online networks of PlayStation and Xbox Live this Christmas, creating trouble for gamers. The group had recently claimed responsibility for an outage on Xbox Live network.

The 2014 Christmas turned out to be really bad for gamers as both the online networks of PlayStation and Xbox Live were offline after a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack, for which black hat hacking group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility. Gamers might have to go through the same experience this year too as a member of Lizard Squad believes the Phantom Squad will launch a similar attack this Christmas.

A member of Lizard Squad who was arrested following last year's attacks told Wired: "Right now they're just empty threats, but it's very possible [that the attack will happen]. One of the guys [from Phantom Squad] is a friend of ours [Lizard Squad's] and he probably does have the resources."

The Phantom Squad, through its Twitter handle, said the attacks serve as a warning to Microsoft and Sony to improve their cyber security. "I get asked a lot on why we do this? Why do we take down PSN and Xbox Live? Because cyber security does not exist," the Phantom Squad noted on its Twitter handle, which has now been suspended. "PSN and Xbox don't use that money to improve their security.... So until they open their eyes Xbox Live and PSN will remain vulnerable."

Clicking on Phantom Squad's Twitter account will redirect you to a page that reads: "Account suspended. This account has been suspended. Learn more about why Twitter suspends accounts, or return to your timeline."

While talking about the Phantom Squad's attack threats, the Lizard Squad member said: "It's probably 50/50, because right now they want to carry on a legacy. It happened last year, which is quite a while ago now. And they want to do it again.

"It's a wannabe group really. It's just a repeat of last year. It's pretty much a copycat if you look at Lizard Squad and Phantom Squad, it's the same thing."

On Microsoft and Sony's security improvements, he said the companies have not made much upgradation after last year's attacks. "I haven't managed to look at the Microsoft or Sony servers, but if Phantom Squad could manage to take it down then obviously not much has changed. They haven't protected their servers well enough," the member noted.