PlayStation Network Hacker Bomb Threat Diverts Flight

PlayStation Network hacker bomb threat diverts Sony exec’s flight

ps4, game console, Sony — Image used with permission by copyright holder

UPDATE: It appears that a bomb threat issued on Twitter by the hacker group Lizard Squad has prompted American Airlines to divert flight #362, from San Diego to Dallas, for “a security-related issue.” The flight carried Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley, who had earlier exchanged words with Lizard Squad’s Twitter account following the DoS attacks that brought down PlayStation Network, Battle.net, and others.

During the confrontation, Lizard Squad shared a screencap of the purchase confirmation page for Smedley’s upcoming flight in a now-removed tweet and threatened to get the flight diverted. The group followed through with a tweet directed at American Airlines warning of “explosives on-board” flight #362, and the flight was diverted to Phoenix soon after. Smedley addressed the incident in a handful of tweets.

Awesome. Flight diverted to Phoenix for security reasons.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014

Something about security and our cargo. Sitting on Tarmac

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014

Some of Lizard Squad’s tweets are marked by admissions of ties to the ISIS terrorist organization, recently in the news for releasing a video of American journalist James W. Foley being executed. While the tweets confirm nothing in and of themselves, the bomb threat coupled with the stated ties to known terrorists have surely drawn the attention of the Department of Homeland Security.

ORIGINAL POST: Servers for PlayStation Network, Battle.net, League of Legends, and Path of Exile appear to have been brought to a halt by denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that hacker group “Lizard Squad” is claiming responsibility for (via ShackNews).

Sony’s official network status page claims that PSN is online at the time of this writing, but the @AskPlayStation Twitter account confirms that service is “intermittent.” The rest appear to be mostly or fully fixed (see here, here, and here). The situation appears to be ongoing, so it’s possible that other online gaming services may be disrupted as well.

There’s no singular method of motive for executing a DoS attack, but the result is always a disruption in one service provider or another’s online services. This particular attack has so far only targeted gaming services. We’ll keep you posted on any additional developments.

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