The Xbox Live service was offline earlier today — New World Hackers (NWH) claim that happened due to a DDoS attack conducted from their side
The PlayStation, Xbox Live or Steam are favourite targets for hackers, not only do they like to display a show of power but they also enjoy ruining the day for gamers around the world.
Hacking group New World Hackers (NWH) have pretty much done just that as they are back in the news and this time, the group have conducted a powerful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Xbox Live service forcing gamers all over the world to take the issue on Twitter and other gaming platforms trying to figure out what has happened.
Last night around 3am UK time, the Xbox live service went offline and a status on the official Twitter account of Xbox appeared informing users about the current situation “Our teams are investigating Social and Gaming issues on Xbox One.”
Our teams are investigating Social and Gaming issues on Xbox One. Keep an eye here: https://t.co/99xfLMWcZW for updates.
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) February 14, 2016
While things were uncertain, the NWH group who was behind shutting down all BBC websites, HSBC bank and Donald Trump, contacted HackRead and revealed that the Xbox service is offline due to a DDoS attack they conducted a while ago. When asked what’s the reason for doing so? one of the attacks said that:
“We attacked XBOX as once again a test of our power. We plan on taking down a few major ISIS channels next month. And it just seemed like the perfect time to test.”
Here is a screenshot NWH shared with HackRead showing the service was targeted and down in several countries around the world.
Microsoft’s version:
Microsoft has neither accepted nor rejected the possibility of DDoS attack on Xbox Live’s service. It also hasn’t revealed what actually happened. However, the good news is that the service is back online and you can enjoy online gaming once again.
The earlier issues should now be resolved. We hope you're able to enjoy the rest of your day with us!
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) February 15, 2016
Here are some Tweets from Xbox users when the service was offline:
@XboxSupport you can't even log on my boyfriend has been having issues since we came back from going out 30 MINS AGO ruining my vday bc hes😡
— Boston Strong ™ 🇺🇸 (@bostonstrongg_) February 14, 2016
https://twitter.com/xxBOOxYAHxx/status/699017391573831681
https://mobile.twitter.com/SmileRGamer/status/699017283868454912