Perhaps as a preview of things to come on Christmas, the newly formed DDoS group Phantom Squad has taken down Xbox LIVE across Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Xbox on Windows 10.
Xbox LIVE has been experiencing intermittent outages for a few hours now, with players reporting issues connecting to online multiplayer games asuch as Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Destiny, and more. Additionally, the outages have prevented many for using online video services like Netflix and Hulu.
Microsoft's Xbox LIVE support site has issued a service alert for "Xbox LIVE Core Services," as well as "Purchase and Content Usage." This seems to be affecting signing in to Xbox LIVE, creating and amaging an account, and search functionality, as well as purchasing items, redeeming codes, and downloading purchases.
The latest updates read:
"Hey Xbox members, are you having trouble with game invites and receiving your toast notifications? Are you running into issues purchasing certain content? Additionally, are you having an issue playing games and media you’ve purchased? We are aware of these issues and are working hard to get it fixed ASAP! Thank you for being patient while we work. We’ll post another update when more information becomes available."
"Hey Xbox members, are you having trouble purchasing or managing your subscriptions for Xbox Live? Are you also having an issue with signing into Xbox Live? We are aware of these issues and are working to get it fixed ASAP! Thank you for being patient while we work. We’ll post another update when more information becomes available."
Microsoft's Xbox Support is aware of the issues and looking into them, but, as expected, the company has not admitted to any DDoS attacks.
Of course, Phantom Squad has already claimed responsibility.
Xbox Live #Offline
— Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 17, 2015
Earlier this week, the group promised to take down both Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network on Christmas day. Judging by today, it looks like Microsoft hasn't learned its lesson from last year's DDos (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks by the famed Lizard Squad.
For what it's worth, PlayStation Network appears to be up and running, although that could just be because Phantom Squad hasn't turned their attention to Sony's network yet.
