WATCH ABOVE: An American Airlines plane with 179 passengers and a crew of six was scheduled to fly from Dallas to San Diego but stopped for what the FBI termed a security threat after hackers disrupted the travel plans of a Sony executive.
TORONTO – Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) is back online after being attacked by an apparent hacker group Sunday night.
Service was restored to users early Monday after the network, which allows gamers to play each other and access PlayStation services, was taken offline by a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) – a technique often used by hackers to take businesses offline by flooding their servers with massive amounts of fake traffic.
According to a statement on PlayStation’s website, there is no evidence of unauthorized access to users’ personal information or intrusion to the network.
In a bizarre twist, the same group who claimed responsibility for the cyber-attack was responsible for diverting an American Airlines flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley, after tweeting that there were explosives on the plane.
http://twitter.com/LizardSquad/statuses/503595025301635073
Smedley tweeted Sunday:
American Airlines has not commented on the incident.
Another hacker group named “Fame” has also claimed responsibility for the attack, criticizing the “Lizard Squad” on Twitter for claiming responsibility. In a video uploaded to YouTube, Fame claims to have carried out the attack to bring attention to weaknesses in Sony’s network.
“Sony is a company that lacks the security which makes every user vulnerable to having their information leaked,” said the masked voice in the video. “Please understand I am here to show that you as a corporate company are vulnerable.”
Fame later threatened to take down Microsoft’s Xbox network.
http://twitter.com/FamedGod/statuses/503611902334083073
This isn’t the first time the PlayStation Network has been targeted.
In 2011, Sony’s network was attacked by hackers who exposed the personal data – including login credentials and credit card numbers of about 77 million users. The network was compromised for nearly a month.
In January 2013, Sony was fined £250,000 (US$377,575) by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office over the breach.
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