The Lizard Squad, who threatened to take down PSN and Xbox Live around Holiday time earlier this year, and then went ahead and followed through with that threat with a mass, directed DDoS attack, are under investigation, the FBI has confirmed.

Of course, DDoS attacks on gaming networks, while bothersome, aren’t the end of the world. This wasn’t even their first DDoS attack this year, as there was at least one each on PSN and XBL earlier as well. They also issued a bomb threat against a commercial flight earlier this year that was carrying SOE president John Smedley on it.

So, yeah. They sort of had it coming. As of right now, the FBI has confirmed that it is investigating the Lizard Squad for a DDoS attack that may be criminal in nature, but it has refused to comment any further. “The FBI is investigating the matter. Given the pending nature of the case, we cannot comment further,” an FBI official said to Venturebeat. On their part, the Lizard Squad are pretending not to care.

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.

If you haven’t heard – and you probably have, since you’re unable to log into the same – the PlayStation Network has been taken down courtesy of hacking group Lizard Squad. While Xbox Live has been on and off with its services since Christmas Day, PSN hasn’t had as much success in getting back up.

Sony finally provided an update on the situation through the PS Blog as SCEA VP for Consumer Experience Catherine Jensen stated that, “The video game industry has been experiencing high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay. Multiple networks, including PSN, have been affected over the last 48 hours. PSN engineers are working hard to restore full network access and online gameplay as quickly as possible.

“From time to time there may be disruptions in service due to surges in traffic, but our engineers will be working to restore service as quickly as possible.”

Have you had any luck getting online? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Sony’s PlayStation Network faces significant slowdown yesterday. Servers were down and many players found it difficult to core gameplay services. The same issues were faced by Xbox Live, which is also currently back up for the most part. This comes off of threats from hacking group Lizard Squad to take down PSN and Xbox Live on Christmas.

The Ask PlayStation Twitter first tweeted out that, “We are aware that there have been issues reported with PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate.”

In a recent update, Ask PlayStation revealed that, “We are seeing reduced reports of network issues. We’ll continue to monitor – thanks for your patience and happy holidays!”

As it stands, you may still face slight issues when connecting to games and using online apps like YouTube and such. However, things seem to be back to normal. What are your thoughts on Lizard Squad’s attacks? More importantly, how is your Christmas going? Let us know in the comments.