Last Christmas, gamers the world over were ecstatic to play their Xbox One and PlayStation 4 systems over the holiday break, some having just received the consoles as gifts. Unfortunately, those looking to have some gaming fun last Christmas were in for a rude awakening, as both Xbox Live and PSN were taken down by DDoS attacks.

These attacks were claimed by notorious hacking group Lizard Squad, and they have since threatened and carried out similar attacks. Thanks to the actions by Lizard Squad, whenever PSN or Xbox Live go down, like PSN was down for a few hours over 4th of July weekend, it's hard not to wonder if the downtime is due to simple technical difficulties, or yet another malicious DDoS attack.

Gamers angry over the Christmas downtime and the attacks on services that they have to pay to use such as PS Plus and Xbox Live should be happy to know that at least one member of Lizard Squad, Julius Kivimaki, has been found guilty of over 50,000 counts of cybercrime. He has been served a two-year suspended sentence, and ordered to help prevent cybercrime instead of committing it. For one of Kivimaki's victims, the somewhat-lenient ruling from the Finnish government isn't enough.

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John Smedley, CEO of Daybreak Game Company, the studio behind games such as H1Z1, has spoken out on Twitter about his intention to make sure that Kivimaki pays more dearly for his crimes. Smedley was harassed by Kivimaki in more ways than one, as the hacker actually called in a bomb threat to bring down a plane Daybreak's CEO was flying on, leaked a multitude of Smedley's personal information to the public, stole his identity, and "swatted" (called in a SWAT team to raid his house based on false information) him.

"He's a sociopath and and will get what's coming to him," Smedley said over Twitter. Smedley also entertained the idea of taking Kivimaki's parents to Civil Court, on the grounds that Kivimaki is a minor, and therefore can't sue him directly. "His parents need to be held accountable for his actions in addition to his going to jail," Smedley continued. "So I'm coming for you Julius."

It's likely that Kivimaki will be paying for more of his crimes in the future, as the 50,000 plus counts of cybercrime he was found guilty of did not even account for the Christmas DDoS attacks, the largest attack from Lizard Squad to date. If Smedley has anything to say about it, Kivimaki won't be getting off as easy as he's gotten so far, and it will be interesting to see if Smedley does indeed go forward with suing Kivimaki and his parents.

Most lawyers would say that it's usually not wise to discuss possible upcoming court cases in public, but Smedley has been known for being outspoken in the past. He's called for the end of subscription-based MMOs like World of Warcraft, and also went on a Twitter tirade against cheaters in H1Z1, so he's no stranger to Twitter controversy, though the current situation is a bit more serious than cheaters in online games, annoying as they may be.

Source: Twitter