Lizard Squad Bomb Threat Diverts Sony Exec's Plane To Phoenix 131
As if cutting off from their games millions of users wasn't enough for the day, Forbes reports that [the] hacker collective (or individual) known as the “Lizard Squad” succeeded in taking offline many gaming services including Blizzard’s Battle.net and Sony PSN. But things took a turn from irritating DDoS attacks to another level of harassment earlier this afternoon when the group took to Twitter to announce publicly that it a believed the flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley had explosives on board. The flight had been bound from Dallas to San Diego, but in response to the bomb threat, the plane was diverted to Phoenix.
Aaaand there goes the lizard squad (Score:5, Insightful)
Pissing off game companies is one thing. Getting the DHS involved is another entirely. They've just brought a level of hell down on themselves they are woefully unprepared to deal with.
Twit....ter (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad (Score:4, Insightful)
Outlandish Claim? Check
Zero Evidence? Check.
Impossible to refute? Check.
Yes, sir, we have a typical conspiracy theory.
Re: Aaaand there goes the lizard squad (Score:5, Insightful)
Good point, now that one conspiracy theory has been proven correct we can safely toss all critical thinking out the window and accept every other half-wit conspiracy that appears on the internet.
Re:What's the point of a hack like this? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess anyone clever enough to do something intelligent or useful with these attacks would also be smart enough not to bother.
Way to taunt the Juggernaut (Score:5, Insightful)
Pissing off game companies is one thing. Getting the DHS involved is another entirely. They've just brought a level of hell down on themselves they are woefully unprepared to deal with.
My thoughts exactly. These kids better find a cave or a hole on the ground somewhere near the Khyber Pass or Timbuktu. Making bomb threats/pranks? There is a whole lot of angry coming right at them right now, the likes you can only escape by being a government entity, not some stupid script kiddie.
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Insightful)
yeah, the same way the maffia would tell you: "it's a nice little shop you have there, I heard something bad could happen to it, like a fire, or a bomb. Want me to check on you once in a while ? you know just to be sure you're safe and all ?"
it's not like they would ever threaten anyone. Just relaying some hearsay and proposing some help.
Re:Misleading headline (Score:5, Insightful)
They said they've been receiving reports about a bomb on the plane, not that they put one there. They didn't make a bomb threat; they relayed one.
They better have proof that they received a bomb threat then.
Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad (Score:2, Insightful)
The final category is: Circumstantial Evidence.
People said the suspicions about NSA overreach were "crazy" for years, but all the signs were there before Snowden released hard documents. If everyone waited to be spoon-fed facts about the world around them, rather than drawing conclusions based on life experiences and circumstantial evidence, we'd still be trying to figure out that whole "fire" thing.
Re:Aaaand there goes the lizard squad (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, I'd wager they're almost certainly in the US, or at least another relatively wealthy country with an extradition treaty. They're also probably a bunch of teenage males from moderately well-off families, and who have far more free time and impotent angst than good sense. Anyone living in an area with lots of real-world problems as opposed to first-world problems wouldn't bother targeting videogame companies or Sony executives.
Re:The Faux News of Geekdom (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps some reading comprehension is in order. The OP didn't say they did it; they merely pointed out the possibility.
Oh well, in that case, let me point out the possibility that Elvis is still alive, that the Moon landings were a hoax filmed at a NASA's garage, that 9/11 was masterminded by the Rothschild family and "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is a real, historical document.
Hell, here is another possibility. Obama ordered it because Benghazi. Or better yet, maybe Bush ordered Cheney to assemble a bunch of hackers back in 2007, but these hackers went rogue for lack of sex or whatever, beyond the original, official parameters of their mission, which did not include making fake bomb threats.
It is possible. You cannot prove it to me that this is not possible.
To borrow your own words, I am merely pointing out the possibility. Again, I cannot prove it (that the possibility is false), but I can say it (pointing it out.)
Anything that is not mathematically provable to be impossible is, by definition, possible. But just because something is possible, it does not make it reasonable. It certainly does not imply that such thing is even noteworthy of consideration.
Again, Law of Parsimony, or Occam's Razor or whatever you want to call it. If people want to spend brain cells in merely pointing out the possibility of really stupid, inane, batshit crazy conspiracy theories, whatever rocks their proverbial boats. They should not expect not to be called on it, though.