Sony and Microsoft Victims of Hacking of their PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Services

        On Christmas day many gamers faced an inability to play online on both Microsoft's Xbox live services and Sony's PlayStation Network. The attack was committed by hacker group known as Lizard Squad. While Microsoft had their service running again the very Friday after, Sony however was not able to have their servers up and running until the following Sunday. Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack on the gaming networks, and their attacks only stopped on Christmas day after MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom gave the group 3,000 vouchers to his uploading service. An alleged member of the group was arrested. Vinnie Omari, 22, was arrested by the United Kingdom police after a raid of his home "on suspicion of fraud by false representation and Computer Misuse Act offences [sic]." All of Omari's possessions were confiscated including his Xbox One, phones, laptops,  and computer USBs. Omari was released on Tuesday and no charges have been passed since. Another member of Lizard Squad by the name "ryanc" or simply Ryan, is under investigation by the FBI who believe him to be a Finnish teenager. The group announced that the attacks were nothing more than a publicity stunt to promote their do-it-yourself DDoS tool called Lizard Stresser which the group is currently developing and selling on the online Black Market.