|
 Sony
says PlayStation network back online, user information
safe after attack
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[August 25, 2014]
By Malathi Nayak and Sophie Knight
SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO
(Reuters) - Sony Corp's PlayStation Network was back
online on Monday following a cyber attack that took it
down over the weekend, which coincided with a bomb scare
on a commercial flight carrying a top Sony executive in
the United States. |
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 Sony said on its PlayStation blog that its PlayStation network had
been taken down by a denial of service-style attack, which
overwhelmed the system with traffic, but did not intrude onto the
network or access any of its 53 million users' information.
A Twitter user with the handle @LizardSquad claimed responsibility
for the attack on Sunday, and said the attack was meant to pressure
Sony to spend more of its profits on 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 on Sunday.
Sony's network business has been hit by attacks before, with a
security breach in 2011 dealing a major blow to plans at the time
for a looser network designed to allow for the connection of a range
of Sony devices.
Since then it has invested heavily in the system and is now hoping
the network 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 the servers of World of
Warcraft video gamemakers Blizzard Entertainment, whose website was
down. It threatened to attack Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live network, to
which some users said they had problems accessing on Sunday.
"We don't comment on the root cause of a specific issue, but as you
can see on Xbox.com/status, the core Xbox LIVE services are up and
running," Xbox spokesman David Dennis told Reuters.
Blizzard Entertainment was not immediately reachable for comment,
though its customer support Twitter account said the company's
servers were stabilising.
[to top of second column] |
BOMB SCARE
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.
That followed an earlier tweet from a game player's forum telling
the airline: "I'm gonna send a bomb on your plane be ready for me
tomorrow".
A PlayStation spokeswoman in the United States said the FBI was
investigating the diversion of the Dallas/Fort Worth to San Diego
flight.
The FBI had no comment on the incident.
American Airlines said on its Twitter account that it was "aware of
threats" made over the microblogging service and had alerted
security.
(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Stephen Coates and
Ryan Woo)
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