The internet has been paying attention to LizardSquad and Anonymous recently, overlooking and partially ignoring the other hacking groups that are out there. One such group that you may know of is H4LT. They leaked the Xbox One Software Development Kit onto the internet and tweeted screenshots and the like directly to Xbox themselves in a bid to draw attention to the fact.

When asked if there was a point to leaking the SDK, they stated: “We leaked it to the community because if something is shared then.. progress is achieved faster than alone”…” Something kept between us will not achieve anything. Share it with the community = creativity and research. Shared is how it should be.”

“The SDK will basically allow the community to reverse and open doors towards homebrew applications being present on the Xbox One.” They also said that they do have plans for further software leaks in the future, though didn’t give specifics on the matter.

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You’re likely already aware of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live issues that have rocked the gaming scene this holiday season. Whilst most people will agree that a DDOS attack doesn’t qualify as hacking, given the lack of actual hacking, but the attack successfully crippled the online gaming services of the Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

Sky News recently ran an interview with an individual claiming to be a member of LizardSquad who tried to justify the attacks by using the usual line, ‘we’re trying to make a point’. Speaking to Sky News, he said “We did it mostly to raise awareness, to amuse ourselves.”

“I mean I can’t really feel bad that I might have forced a few kids to spend time with their families instead of playing games.”

However the attacks were stopped when the group was offered a premium service in exchange for the cessation of hostile moves against Sony and Microsoft. Kim Dotcom, Mega co-founder, offered the group access to premium privileges of the file sharing site in exchange for the halting of their activities.

Now whether you like them or not, objectively speaking you need to admit that Sony has been in much better shape. Nowadays most people only really think of the PS4 when they think of Sony, which is a shame. Well it would appear that their popularity is at its lowest in six years in the wake of the recent hacking controversy.

According to a research conducted by YouGov, users were asked “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

The results are graded from “1oo” to “-100” with “100” meaning absolutely positive, “-100” meaning absolutely negative and “0” being a perfectly neutral position. Sony started out at 13, falling to 11 on November 24th when Sony’s hack was first revealed to the public.  From there, in the wake of move cancellations and the leaking of personal files and information, things only degraded further for Sony. They dropped from 11 to 3 by December 19th, putting them at a six year low.

Thanks, Gamespot.

The hacking group that have recently come into the spotlight, Lizard Squad, have once again stepped up to claim responsibility for the attacks against Sony’s PlayStation Network Servers. This attack and claim of responsibility comes after threats were made to take the Xbox Live Servers offline on December 25th.

The group has been engaging in a series of attacks against video game servers for some time now and for no discernible reason and whilst some have been using these attacks as a platform to boost their own fame, Lizard Squad seem to have no clear goal outside of mass aggravation.

They recently tweeted “PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad” but it is not yet certain whether or not the attack was a success or not with many users reporting usability. So who knows what’s going on? This does show one thing. The era of always online games can very easily be brought to a grinding halt.

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Lizard Squad, a group of hackers that have been targeting companies with DDOS attacks, have claimed responsibility for Xbox Live being down for some time today. Speaking out via their official twitter page, the group has said “Xbox Live #offline”.

Frustrating Xbox gamers internationally, Lizard Squad have been taking game services offline for  a while now and have said that their most recent attack was a holiday present for Microsoft and claimed that this is just part of a great scheme that will unfold as we get closer to Holidays.

Having in the past attacked the PSN, Destiny and a number of EA games, Lizard Squad are quickly becoming consistent with their use of the infamous DDOS attack which cripples servers temporarily. Since the attack, the service has started to come back online and some users have reported zero loss in functionality and apparently “Sony had it worse.”

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CyberConnect2 are the guys who have brought us the .hack games, as well as the Naruto fighters, in association with Bandai Namco. So yes, they may be a divisive game developer in terms of their reception, but they have a hardcore fan following. Enough of one to host their own event, actually.

They held one just recently- the “CC2 Summer Campaign 2014” talk event, where they revealed that they’re currently working on a major project.

This, of course, wouldn’t be the first time the developer has worked on original games, but unlike previous original releases, which were more like side hobby projects for them, this new release is, in their own words, supposed to be a ‘major new title.’

That is all that we know about it for now, though. As to what kind of a game it is, or what platform it is coming on, we have no clue or inkling whatsoever, although with TGS just around the corner, more information can’t be that far off.

Speaking to Eurogamer, the representative stated that, “Although it is uncertain whether the incident led to the copying and decryption of email addresses and passwords, it is possible that users with accounts at these websites have had personal data copied.”

Users were informed about the security breach on Friday itself. Currently, Crytek is working to get the sites back up and running, and will be working to ensure that future lapses in security don’t happen. Users will most likely need to change their passwords when logging in again.

Crytek is only the latest in a long list of publishers and developers to have their services hacked, which includes Sony, Ubisoft and many more.

Because that’s how you can ever get hacked, right? The attacks happened due to loopholes in third-party apps (hello FIFA), and it also involves US social security numbers.

“We are aware that a group of attackers are using several stringed social engineering techniques to compromise the accounts of a handful of high-profile Xbox LIVE accounts held by current and former Microsoft employees,” Microsoft’s statement read.

“We are actively working with law enforcement and other affected companies to disable this current method of attack and prevent its further use. Security is of critical importance to us and we are working every day to bring new forms of protection to our members.”

Microsoft does not collection vital personal information so they are not at fault.

“Microsoft does not collect or use Social Security numbers in its services, including Xbox LIVE Gamertags or Microsoft accounts. Attackers are targeting high-profile Microsoft employees by social engineering other companies that do use this data to intercept security proofs from Microsoft to compromise the accounts.”

Well, they are investigating this issue and if it’s anything like those FIFA hacks, they probably won’t do anything about it, however, since Microsoft executives have been the ones attacked here, you never know.

Tell us what you think in comments section below.

Trion Worlds MMO has gotten hacked and the company has released a statement. So if you had an account you know what to do. They have mentioned that no credit card information was accessed, and you can see their statement below.

We recently discovered that unauthorized intruders gained access to a Trion Worlds account database.

The database in question contained information including user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards.

There is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way. We have already taken further action to strengthen our systems, even as we, with external security experts, continue to research the extent of the unauthorized access.

You will notice on your next log in to our website that you will be required to change your password, and existing Mobile Authenticator users will also need to reconnect their Authenticator. When you log in, you will be prompted to provide a new password, security questions and answers, and be given the option to connect your account to our Mobile Authenticator to enhance your account’s security.

If you have used your username and password for other accounts, especially financial accounts or accounts with personal information, we suggest you change your passwords on those accounts as well. We recommend that you carefully review your statements, account activity, and credit reports to help protect the security of those accounts.

If you need information on how to obtain your credit report or believe any such accounts have been breached, please see below for more information. 

Square Enix members site got hacked recently, especially the Japan and the US one, and we have reports that almost 1.8 million members could be affected by the hack.

The website is still down but Square Enix has issued a statement.

We have reason to believe that unknown parties may have gained unauthorized access to a particular Square Enix server related to the free SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service offered in North America and Japan. In response, Square Enix, Inc. has temporarily suspended operation of the SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service starting at 10PM (PST) on December 12, 2011.

We are assessing the full extent of this potential breach to determine what data, if any, was compromised and will provide more details as soon as possible. While some personal information may have been accessed, we can confirm that there is no possibility of any credit card information leak from this incident, since the server in question stores no credit card information. We estimate that the suspension will continue for a few days until we complete our investigation and counter-measures. We will update you as we learn more.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the temporary suspension of the SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service. We take data security extremely seriously and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers and fans. We appreciate your patience and support at this time.

We will keep you updated once we get more information. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.