Twitch knocked offline by same hackers who DDoS’d PSN, Battle.net and Origin

The Twitch videogame-streaming service went offline for several hours last night (Aug. 26), possibly as a result of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which would make it the latest in a series of attacks on online gaming services.

The site, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this week for $970 million, was taken offline overnight for a time, with users complaining about problems accessing content.

We're currently investigating issues with the site. Please stay tuned
— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) August 27, 2014

As of posting, the Twitch homepage is — barely — able to be accessed, and it’s nearly impossible to stream or view streams on the service in any form.

The same group that was responsible for taking the PlayStation Network, Battle.net and League of Legends is at it again. But this time, the group set its sights on the largest game streaming website in the world, Twitch. The hacker group known as the Lizard Squad has taken responsibility for a series of attacks that took down some of the biggest gaming networks over the weekend.

Twitch is the latest target of Lizard Squad. Since an hour ago all of its servers have been down, making it impossible for users to stream or watch live gameplay. Presumably, this is a well-coordinated DDoS attack, and one unlike anything Twitch has ever seen before.

Lizard Squad's motives are apparently to cause chaos and boast about its own skills. Its sole demand was for Twitch users to send pictures, via Twitter, of themselves with "Lizard Squad" written on their foreheads. Lizard Squad ceased its alleged attack on Twitch after receiving four ransom selfies.

Lizard Squad also claimed it tried to knock Xbox Live offline last night, but that service proved more secure than Twitch's or Sony's.

Microsoft props to you for giving us a challenge, good work. Sony, smh.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardSquad) August 25, 2014

At the time of writing, Twitch was back online. The site is used by more than 45 million users each month to record and live stream their PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 gaming escapades online for others to watch.