Sony Corp’s PlayStation Network was back online yesterday following a cyber attack that took it down over the weekend, which coincided with a bomb scare on a US commercial flight carrying a top Sony executive.
Sony said on its PlayStation blog that the network had been taken down by a denial-of-service-style attack, which overwhelmed the system with traffic but did not intrude into the network or access information of its 53 million users.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was investigating the bomb threat that caused an American Airlines flight to be diverted.
A Twitter account with the handle @LizardSquad claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack and said it was meant to pressure Sony to invest more in the network.
“Sony, yet another large company, but they aren’t spending the waves of cash they obtain on their customers’ [PlayStation Network] service. End the greed,” one post said.
Plans for looser network Sony’s was the victim of a notorious 2011 breach that compromised data of tens of millions of PlayStation Network users, dealing a major blow to plans for a looser network designed to allow for the connection of a range of Sony devices.
Since then it has invested heavily in securing the network, which it hopes can serve as a centrepiece of its plans to rebuild its business after years of losses in its flagship electronics operations.
Lizard Squad said it had also targeted servers of World of Warcraft video game maker Blizzard Entertainment, whose website was down.
It threatened to attack Microsoft Corp’s Xbox Live network.
“We don’t comment on the root cause of a specific issue, but . . . the core Xbox Live services are up and running,” said an Xbox spokesman.
Blizzard’s customer support Twitter account said the company’s servers were stabilising.
Tweet Lizard Squad also tweeted to American Airlines on Sunday to say they had heard that explosives were on board a flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley.
An FBI spokesman said the bureau was investigating the threat against American Airlines Flight 362, which was travelling from Dallas to San Diego. It was diverted to Phoenix, then continued on to San Diego.
Daniel Clemens, founder of PacketNinjas, which helps businesses fight cyber attacks, said he expected the US government would quickly catch the attackers. He said the Lizard Squad did not appear to be practising good operational security, meaning it would be relatively easy for authorities to track them down.– (Reuters)
