Lizard Squad members charged over Blizzard DDoS attacks

A pair of men have been charged in connection with DDoS attacks on a number of high profile gaming targets, including Blizzard games and the recent Battlefield 1 beta.

According to a release by the Department of Justice, Zachary Buchta, 19, from Maryland and Bradley Jan Willem van Rooy, 19, of Leiden in the Netherlands have been charged with conspiring to cause damage to protected computers by a federal court in Chicago.

The pair have been charged as a result of an investigation into the activities of two for-hire cyber crime groups, PoodleCorp and Lizard Squad. The two men are accused of being members of the latter.

Not only are the two accused of launching DDoS attacks on gaming services, but they are also accused of trafficking stolen payment accounts. Four domains have also been seized in connection with the attacks—shenron.lizardsquad.org, lizardsquad.org, stresser.poodlecorp.org, and poodlecorp.org.

The investigation into Lizard Squad was initially triggered by its connection to a for-hire phone harassment service, phonebomber.net. The Department of Justice does not suggest that Buchta and van Rooy are connected to this service.

Buchta made an appearance in court in Chicago this morning, while van Rooy remains in the custody of authorities in the Netherlands. If found guilty their charges carry the maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

Lizard Squad has a long track record of attacking gaming services. In the past they have attacked League of Legends and Destiny, and were behind the Christmas 2014 attacks on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network.