Phantom Squad Threatens to Shut Down Both PSN and Xbox Live for Christmas

Ho ho ho, it's time for the holidays again, but some people just prefer to be Grinches... or perhaps maybe the opposite, if you really wonder.

Just like last year, a band of hackers have threatened to bring down PlayStation Network... and it's not Lizard Squad. It's Phantom Squad, who recently managed to cripple Xbox Live for a few hours (it's still ongoing). Last year when an attack took place, Sony apologized and provided extra days of PS Plus as well as a 10 percent discount.

It sounds like they're appearing to be vigilantes, but they're picking the wrong time of year to pursue that route. According to the Tweets from Phantom Squad (thanks to Neowin):

"I get asked a lot on why we do this? Why do we take down PSN and Xbox Live? Because cyber security does not exist."

However, Kimdotcom, the group that countered Lizard Squad last year, is on the case, according to their Tweet:

"Warning @Sony & @Microsoft. You had 1 year to upgrade your networks. If Lizard Squad takes down PSN & XBOX this Xmas, we'll be pissed! RT!"

Then Anonymous jumped into the fray with this Tweet a couple days ago:

"If PSN or Xbox live goes down, Microsoft and Sony are the blame. You would expect these corporations to have sufficient DDoS protection."

So hopefully PSN has at least listened and enhanced their securities over the past year, but it seems that Xbox Live has NOT learned its lesson. Then again, Microsoft could recover, because the attack hasn't happened on Christmas... yet.

Still, there's the possibility of seeing some very disappointed gamers this holiday season.