Remember last year, when hackers known as Lizard Squad took Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network offline on Christmas Day, leaving your brand-new Xbox One or PlayStation 4 largely inoperable? It might happen again.

A new group calling itself Phantom Squad is threatening to do the exact same thing this year. In a now-deleted tweet, the group pledged to "shut down Xbox live and PSN this year on christmas [and] keep them down for one straight week."

Phantom Squad claims to operate independently of Lizard Squad, arguing on Twitter that the rival hacking group "cant touch us." Nevertheless, they both have the same target, Phantom Squad explained in a series of tweets:

Ok think about this... Xbox Live and PSN have millions upon millions of dollars... but do they use that money for better security? — Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

No. PSN and Xbox don't use that money to improve their security... So until they open their eyes Xbox Live and PSN will remain vulnerable. — Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

Hack the government.... Why would i want to hack the government for? — Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

PSN and Xbox Live... Companies that have millions of dollars... and don't bother on working on security. — Phantom Squad (@PhantomSqaud) December 16, 2015

Last year's downtime came to an end with the help of Kim Dotcom, who offered the hackers free storage on his Mega cloud service. This week, he issued a warning to Sony and Microsoft: "You had 1 year to upgrade your networks. If Lizard Squad takes down PSN & XBOX this Xmas, we'll be pissed! RT!"

Lizard Squad said much the same in an interview last year with The Daily Dot.

"If I was working [at Microsoft or Sony] and had a big enough budget, I could totally stop these attacks. I'd buy more bandwidth, some specific equipment, and configure it correctly. It's just about programming skill. With an attack of this scale, it could go up to the millions. But that's really no problem for Sony and Microsoft," a member of the group said.

Here's hoping Microsoft and Sony have taken some of this advice to heart. It appears the Phantom Squad is getting a head start, or just a little practice, before next week:

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