Since August, a hacker group calling itself the Lizard Squad -- self-described as a handful of 'guys with too much free time on their hands' -- have been entertaining themselves by spoiling other people's fun. Primarily, they've been doing this by
attacking online video game services and
knocking them offline. An opposing "white hat" group of network security researchers have now exposed members of the Lizard Squad group, leading to the
arrest of three members, some of whom had also been involved in bomb threats and other domestic terrorism.
The white-hat hacker group, known as "Finest Squad," was formed with a goal to expose Lizard Squad and keep online gaming services running through the holiday season. After their first series of online attacks, the members of the Lizard Squad decided to branch out into bomb threats -- delaying an American Airlines flight carrying John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment. This caused the FBI to get involved, but Lizard Squad didn't seem worried -- as it said the FBI had "[zero] physical evidence."
The group went quiet for a while, and returned early this month, taking down the Playstation network, and for a time it was suspected to be a part of the Guardians of Peace operation against Sony Entertainment. Lizard Squad announced that they intended to be the "next-generation Grinch," and keep gaming services down through Christmas.
During that time, the Finest Squad group was apparently
communicating with
Twitter's legal department about the group's message origins, and separately investigating what tools were used for the DDoS attacks. On December 6, the
Finest Squad twitter account announced a breakthrough, and began tweeting IP addresses for the Lizard Squad's servers. Information continued to be revealed the rest of the day and through the week, including
comments about Lizard Squad's
"methodologies.".
This was quickly followed by
photos and personal information about Lizard Squad members. On December 9, Finest Squad posted that one member of the group had been arrested, and linked to a
Polk County, Florida Sheriff's Department press release about the arrest of a "17-year-old male suspect in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada" who was also connected to three incidents of faked bomb-threats against a local High School and a private home.
As of this week, Finest Squad has celebrated
three arrests. The Lizard Squad posted a message on
its site indicating that it was disbanding following the arrests.