After Sony and Microsoft, is Tor next?
After claiming responsibility for taking down both Sony’s Playstation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live, the R.I.U Lizard Squad’s latest Twitter post seems to suggest that their next target is Tor. More details within.
A twitter post by the R.I.U Lizard Squad seems to suggest that their next target is Tor, the network that helps user achieve net anonymity by rerouting their requests through a series of virtual private networks and physical network exchanges. That means that if one group gains control of a good number of these nodes, they could potentially eavesdrop, alter communications, and track users who use the network.
The extent of these attacks is still unclear, but apparently the Lizard Squad has managed to establish over 3000 relays, which is almost half of the total number on Tor’s network. According to an official statement by The Tor Project though, the number of relays don’t indicate the amount of traffic they are carrying, so the effect on their users at this moment should be minimal.
Here’s the official statement from Tor:
"This looks like a regular attempt at a Sybil attack: the attackers have signed up many new relays in hopes of becoming a large fraction of the network. But even though they are running thousands of new relays, their relays currently make up less than 1% of the Tor network by capacity. We are working now to remove these relays from the network before they become a threat, and we don't expect any anonymity or performance effects based on what we've seen so far."
Interestingly enough though, it seems a rival hacker group known as the The Finest Squad has taken it upon themselves to go against The Lizard Squad because they are “gamers themselves and we feel it is a pretty simple procedure to take out a group of little kids who don't know what they're doing, who still need a little learning." Evidently that didn’t quite work for Christmas, as both gaming networks still went down for extended periods of time, but it remains to be seen how this whole issue will play out, especially since it seems like hacker group Anonymous has also been thrown into the fray.
Sources: Gizmondo, Polygon, Tor
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