In an interview, a member of the hacking group, Lizard Squad, said they gave the internal logins to the Guardians of Peace (GOP) hackers allowing them to break into Sony's systems and steal data, which was later leaked, after the hackers demanded the movie, The Interview, be withdrawn.
The interview was with a person identifying himself as a Lizard Squad administrator and going by the name "Ryan Cleary", however, it is unlikely to be his real name.
When asked if the group had any links to GOP or to the Sony breach, Cleary said the group "do know some people from the GOP" and that they "handed over some Sony employee logins to them" to help in the initial hack, but said they didn't have any role in the breach itself.
Earlier, Lizard Squad attacked and brought down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live on Christmas day, which continued until Kim Dotcom bribed the group a few days later. Cleary claimed that they warned Microsoft and Sony a month beforehand about the attacks, but the companies did nothing.
When asked in the interview if the group was concerned the bribe gave the impression that they could be brought off, Cleary said they were "not too worried" as they are not "an activist group." Instead, they have been "humorously" describing themselves as a "cyberterrorist group."
Referring to the Tor attacks, Cleary said the goal was to "make everyone understand how easy this flaw in Tor is to exploit." The exploit could allow anyone to redirect most outgoing traffic to any website they wanted the traffic to go to, instead of the websites the user wanted.
When asked if there was any hacking operations that the group thought went too far, Cleary pointed to the American Airlines incident. The incident ended with a F-16 fighter jet escort after the group tweeted that Sony Online Entertainment president's plane was carrying explosives.
Referring to rumors that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating the group and breathing down their necks, Cleary denied that law enforcement was a "big of a deal" to them, and that most members were based in EU and Eastern Europe outside the reach of the FBI.
Cleary said the goal of the group is to "have fun," but also to expose "massive security issues with these companies people are trusting their personal information." [sic] He said they are "definitely ramping up" their activities, but said they don't have any plans currently.
Source: Washington Post
26 Comments - Add comment