“So I’m coming for you Julius.”

These were the words of John Smedley, CEO of Daybreak Game Company (previously Sony Online Entertainment), when berating 17-year-old Julius “zeekill” Kivimaki on Twitter. The Finnish teen, who has apparent ties to Lizard Squad, was convicted over 50,000 counts of computer crime related charges, but given a 2-year commuted sentence.

Shortly after Smedley took to Twitter, Daybreak Games’s servers suffered repeated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that have generated instability and customer dismay.

Smedley found the court’s decision particularly problematic and threatened to also sue the teen for his criminal activities. Not only has Lizard Squad, and Kivimaki with them, targeted Daybreak Games in the past for DDoS attacks, but also targeted Smedley directly.

that was the piece of garbage that brought my plane down, leaked my information and did all kinds of other crap to me.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

Needless to say: Smedley and Daybreak Games became central targets for Lizard Squad as part of the Internet mayhem crew’s campaign of harassment. Last year, Lizard Squad made a name for themselves by grinching the Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network with DDoS attacks on Christmas day. During the Christmas DDoS siege owners of both consoles could not play for over 24 hours.

It’s important to note – he was convicted of crimes that had nothing to do YET with the PSN DDOS over Christmas (yes he was part of that) — John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

and he still has 15 other criminal cases awaiting prosecution in Finland. I may go after his parents in Civil court too. Little dirtbag

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

what they won’t tell you is he did time in jail already and got his ass kicked hard inside. @what_security – tell us that story Julius.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

The FBI nailed this guy literally immediately. It took the Finnish government a long time to catch up. — John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

In fact the FBI did, Kivimaki, aka “Zeekill” aka “Ryan”, came to the FBI’s attention shortly after the Christmas Day siege and he was questioned by authorities in relation to that DDoS attack in late December, 2014. However, as Kivimaki is from Finland and not a U.S. citizen, the matter most likely led to the FBI sending the information to Finnish authorities.

I also got to listen to the entire conversation between him and American Airlines the day he called in the bomb threat.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

Earlier this year Lizard Squad members called a bomb threat to American Airlines that diverted John Smedley’s plane and forced it to land.

His parents need to be held accountable for his actions in addition to his going to jail. @what_security – So I’m coming for you Julius. — John Smedley (@j_smedley) July 8, 2015

Shortly after a rant on Twitter about the legal treatment of his harasser in court, Daybreak Games’ servers came under a series of increasingly massive DDoS attacks. The first of which barely dented the service, but as is common for DDoS salvos, it was just a scouting run for a much larger burst.

Getting reports that the attack is affecting all Daybreak Game Company games. Hope you like our present John Smedley (the CEO).

— Lizard Squad (@LizardLands) July 9, 2015

Over the past few days games run by Daybreak Games—H1Z1, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online—have suffered instability and outages as the company attempts to get the disruptive flow of DDoS under control.

Feuds and the public eye, Lizard Squad’s playground

Feuds between Lizard Squad and high profile members of the media and gaming industry are not uncommon. In the past, Lizard Squad targeted security researcher Brian Krebs, of Krebs on Security, with DDoS attacks and even posted silly insults about him within the mayhem crew’s DDoS-for-hire service Lizard Stresser.

In fact, Krebs himself outed the DDoS-for-hire service run by Lizard Squad as a poorly assembled knockoff and gloated when it was hacked, revealing clientele and their passwords. He also outed Kivimaki back in 2014 along with other suspected Lizard Squad members.

Krebs himself also opined with dismay over the Finnish court’s decision to commute a 2-year jail term for Kivimaki calling the proceeding “a win for Internet trolls and teenage cybercriminals everywhere.”

Photo credit: Daybreak Games Company, John Smedley; BBC, Julius Kivimaki