PlayStation and Xbox networks are targets of hackers
Microsoft has restored service, but engineers still struggling at Sony
Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox Live and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Network, Internet services that video gamers use to play online, were hit by connection failures on Christmas Day, with the hackers Lizard Squad claiming responsibility.
Service was restored for Xbox users Friday, while the PlayStation Network remained offline. Sony said its engineers were “working hard to resolve the network issues.”
Hackers attacked the video game networks on the same day “The Interview” was released online, after major U.S. theaters decided not to show the movie following hacking incidents at Sony’s TV and film unit last month. A group
called Guardians of Peace claimed responsibility for infiltrating Sony Pictures Entertainment’s servers, destroying data, exposing Hollywood secrets and forcing the movie studio to cancel the release of the comedy in many theaters. That group and Lizard Squad had threatened further disruptions on Christmas Day.
“It’s not yet clear whether it’s just an outage of the PlayStation Network or if some personal data has been stolen too,” said Hideki Yasuda, a Tokyo analyst at Ace Research Institute.
Lizard Squad, which took credit for an attack on Sony this year, said on its Twitter account that it was behind the incidents. The group said it would “stop hitting” the services if users called attention to the hack by retweeting its statements.
“The Interview,” a comedy about a fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was shown in more than 300 locations on Christmas Day without incident, and was also available for rent and purchase at the Xbox store, a Sony website and Google Play, among others. It topped the charts of the Xbox store and YouTube’s movie store. The limited release brought in more than $1 million at theaters, Sony Pictures said.
Last week, President Obama blamed North Korea for orchestrating the attacks against Sony Pictures and vowed to respond. North Korea has said it doesn’t know the identity of the hackers claiming responsibility for breaking into Sony’s computer network. The country’s connection to the In- ternet was also disrupted this week.
Satoshi Nakajima, a spokesman for Sony’s games unit, said the company is investigating whether the attack on the PlayStation Network was related to the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack.
E-mail and voice mail messages to David Dennis, a spokesman for Microsoft, weren’t returned.
By streaming the comedy via the Web, Microsoft and Sony took the risk of provoking denial-of-service hacking attacks. The hackers had warned that they intended to hit the companies with such incidents on Christmas Day.
Denial-of-service assaults can be difficult to deflect, even if a company has ample warning, because they are executed by thousands of hacked computers performing normal but database-intensive activities, such as requesting searches or downloading videos, all at the same time.
Cybercriminals attacked Sony in 2011 after it sued a young researcher when he exposed security vulnerabilities in the PlayStation 3 console. The 2011 hack involved the theft of personal data on 77 million PlayStation Network users.
“Last time, the network was down for a month, and PS4 sales were little affected,” Ace Research’s Yasuda said. “A network outage won’t prevent people from buying the PS4. And this time it comes after the peak shopping season, too.”