Uh oh. Lizard Squad, the hacking group claiming responsibility for the Christmas attacks on PlayStation and Xbox Live, has announced a new target: Tor, the anonymous internet service.
To clarify, we are no longer attacking PSN or Xbox. We are testing our new Tor 0day.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) December 26, 2014
The hacker group appears to be attempting to dominate Tor‘s relays to the point where it can comprise anonymity. Tor keeps you anonymous by bouncing your communications around a network of volunteer nodes. But if one group is controlling the majority of the nodes, it could be able to eavesdrop on a substantial number of vulnerable users. Which means Lizard Squad could gain the power to track Tor users if it infiltrates enough of the network.
So far, they have already established over 3000 relays, nearly half of the total number. That’s very not good.
“Someone who claims to be a part of Lizard Squad has set up a large number of Tor relays. That’s it,” Runa A. Sandvik, an advocate with the Tor project, told me. That’s all we know for sure so far.
This comes after the Lizard Squad claimed to stop attacking Xbox Live and PSN yesterday, apparently due to a bribe from Kim Dotcom.
Updating…