After several hours of downtime, the PlayStation and Sony Entertainment networks are online once again.
As Sony Pictures Entertainment continues to deal with the massive security breach Nov. 24 that leaked 27 GB of data online, the PlayStation Network's store was knocked offline in what appears to be another distributed denial of service attack.
Hacker collective Lizard Squad is claiming responsibility for the PlayStation Network's downtime on Dec. 7. The same group is believed to have perpetrated a similar attack on the gaming network back in August.
Sony acknowledges its networks suffered downtime, offering the same prepackaged response it did back on Aug. 25.
"The PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network are back online and people can now enjoy the services on their PlayStation devices," stated Sony. "The ability to access our network services was temporarily impacted due to a distributed denial-of-service attack. We have seen no evidence of any intrusion to the network and no evidence of any unauthorized access to users' personal information."
Even if Lizard Squad is behind the latest PSN outage, the hacker group still hasn't stated its reasons. Some have speculated the group is attempting to elevate its profile.
Whatever Lizard Squad is aiming at, the much more infamous Anonymous group issued a warning to the group during the Aug. 25. attack on PSN.
"#Lizard Squad I am you father, and I need you to stop this nonsense right now or im taking your laptop away. For a week," stated an Anonymous member on Twitter.
If the PSN downtime is the work of hackers, it only spells more trouble for a company being attacked on a much larger scale by a group of still-unidentified cybercriminals.
A security management firm's probe into the Sony Pictures Entertainment security breach discovered the intrusions exposed over 47,000 unique Social Security numbers. The massive breach also leaked full names and home address along with film releases and actors' salary information.
As investigators continue to pinpoint the group behind the attack, the hackers sent out another string of threatening emails to Sony employees and families.
"Removing Sony Pictures on earth is a very tiny work for our group which is a worldwide organization," stated an email sent from the alleged hackers to Sony employees on Dec. 5. "And what we have done so far is only a small part of our further plan."
