Lizard Squad returns, claims to have taken down Xbox and Daybreak Games services

But veiled reference to attack could be attempt to claim credit for unconnected problems

The Lizard Squad's Twitter avatar

The Lizard Squad hacking group has claimed responsibility for outages of Microsoft’s Xbox services over the weekend — returning after a long hiatus.

The group came to prominence for taking Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network down over Christmas. They called a halt to the attacks after being given free vouchers for Kim Dotcom’s Mega file-sharing service, but seem to have gone back on that commitment.

The group has been mostly quiet since late January, when a hacker affiliated with the group claimed to have broken into Taylor Swift’s Twitter and Instagram accounts. At the time, they threatened more attacks — but none appear to have been launched.

Last night, the group took responsibility for outages on Xbox Live. Gamers noted problems with the service last night, and the issues were reflected on Xbox Live’s status page.

It also took responsibility for connection issues at Daybreak Games, which used to be known as Sony Online Entertainment. Gamers had trouble connecting to the network, and Lizard Squad sent a similar tweet announcing the company’s games were offline.

But the claim is similar in tone to that after Facebook went down towards the end of January. Though the group seemed to imply in a tweet that it was responsible for the Facebook problems, the site said that the company had caused the problems itself.