SourceCode: Year of hacks continues with PSN and Microsoft's Xbox Live compromised

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

After the massive celebrity photo leak, the Sony hack and now this, Internet services and systems suddenly feel less secure and more vulnerable than ever. The industry really needs to work together to change this perception.

2014 looks to be come one of the most infamous years in terms of high-profile hacks. We've had our share of massive outages and with a few days away from the New Year, a group of hackers called Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for service outages for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users during Christmas Day. 

Looking to put a damper into everyone's holiday, the hackers were apparently trying to get attention by disrupting the online services needed to log in, update as well as play multiplayer arena games on these new consoles.

For anyone who received a new Xbox One or PlayStation 4, shutting down the online component makes it hard or even impossible to even set the devices up. For the Xbox One, a software update is required before you can even use the device for the first time and this takes as much as 30 minutes to download during normal circumstances. I would expect something similar for PS4.

Annoying Sony and Microsoft and their users is one thing, but this hack exposes yet more weaknesses in the supposedly secure and paid services that are required to run the services and ecosystems of the Internet.

The worry is that by suffering so many of these hacks and intrusions, consumers will be lulled into thinking that these are normal occurrence, which they shouldn't be. I expect security to be a top priority for all technology companies that offer online services to their users.

There's just no excuse for not anticipating hacks like these or for not having the right contingencies in place to nip them in the bud, specially at the busiest time of the year. What's more surprising is that Lizard Squad had already hacked the PlayStation Network (as well as Blizzard's servers) earlier in the year and have been apparently threatening to take the systems offline for weeks.

Companies like Microsoft and Sony really have to take this sort of thing more seriously. It should be their key focus in the New Year and definitely takes precedence over any new features and updates. As for the hackers, who apparently were motivated to undertake these hacks for shits and giggles, a thorough investigation into their activities should follow.

After the massive celebrity photo leak, the Sony hack and now this, Internet services and systems suddenly feel less secure and more vulnerable than ever. The industry really needs to work together to change this perception.