Being allegedly unmasked hasn’t slowed Lizard Squad down, as only a day later the group has announced a paid service for anyone seeking to DDoS a website or network, regardless of the reason. The group says its attacks on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, which seemed without cause, were just marketing for this new rental botnet.
The hacker group launched the product, which it calls “Lizard Stresser,” on Tuesday morning through Twitter (the group’s normal means of communication). Any customer willing to pay for access to the Stresser can, according to Lizard Squad, render a target website, service or network inaccessible until the attack is called off.
How much does it cost? According to screenshots from The Daily Dot fees range from as little as six dollars to as much as $500. The highest tier of service allegedly lets customers launch attacks that will make a target inaccessible for about twenty days. Seems like good value for money, if it works.
“If it works” is the big question. Rental botnets are nothing new, and like all illegal services they have a sketchy reputation. Providers are as likely to run off with customers money as deliver the service promised. An attack as massive as that offered by Lizard Squad would be hard to miss, though, so the world should know if the service works as advertised in short order.
Of course, this move only increases the criminal risk endured by members of Lizard Squad. The recent reveal of two members by Internet security journalist Brian Krebs may have exposed a hole in the group’s supposedly iron-clad anonymity, putting its members at greater risk for investigation and arrest. The fact the group decided to go ahead with its service the day after shows determination, but it may prove fool-hardy in the long run.
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