PlayStation Network DDoS Attack

The PlayStation Network was hit with a DDoS (Direct Denial of Service) attack over the weekend, crippling Sony's online services across all their various platforms. Gamers began noticing network outages starting early Sunday morning, and shortly after Sony came forward to confirm that, yes, there had been an attack.

An anonymous hacker group has come forward to claim responsibility for the DDoS attack but have not said why. Furthermore, the group tweeted out a bomb threat directed at Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley's mid-air flight, which was promptly diverted.

As of this writing, PlayStation services are still spotty and the hacker group is widening their threats to include servers for Blizzard Entertainment, League of Legends, and Path of Exile. So far, neither of those services has gone down, but gamers should be wary if they notice any outages.

Obviously this DDoS Attack pales in comparison to the PSN outage of 2011, but it still brings up familiar concerns. The hope was that Sony had seriously beefed up their security after the outage, but apparently they didn't do enough. Thankfully, Sony reports that no personal information has been accessed or tampered with; this is simply a DDoS attack.

Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic. Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed. We will continue to work towards fixing this issue and hope to have our services up and running as soon as possible. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

Although some will draw connections between the recent goings-on in the industry and this attack, we're focusing on the more pressing matter: the SEN is down and SOE's President had to have his plane redirected because of a bomb threat. It seems strange that a hacker group, presumably consisting of gamers, would want to hurt other gamers, or even threaten the life of a major industry figure, but such is the world we live in. It's a world where Phil Fish can share some unpopular opinions and then have his corporate site and Twitter account (allegedly) hacked.

Coincidentally, Sony had already announced an SEN maintenance down time for Monday August 25th, so we wouldn't be surprised if the company simply kept their online services down through the maintenance period. That obviously doesn't help gamers who were hoping to fit in a few multiplayer sessions before the weekend is up, but that might be how Sony chooses to approach this situation. We'll keep you posted.

[UPDATE: Sony says that all PlayStation services are back online!]

Did you notice any SEN or PlayStation Network outages this weekend? Are you still having trouble connecting?

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Source: IGN