PlayStation Network goes down, and hackers claim responsibility (update: it gets crazier)

Sony PlayStation owners were in for a rude awakening today.

The PlayStation Network, Sony’s online service for its game consoles, has been down all morning in North America, leaving people with no way to play online.

A hacker group named Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for the attack, but its involvement hasn’t been verified yet. The group has apparently had a busy morning, as it has reportedly been involved in attacks on servers for Blizzard’s top games, including World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and Hearthstone, reports ShackNews.

Sony says its engineers are working on a fix, but it didn’t have an expected estimate for a solution at the time of this post.

Network update: our engineers are aware of the issues and are working to resolve them. We'll keep you posted – sorry for the inconvenience

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) August 24, 2014

Hopefully, this attack has only taken down PSN’s servers. Sony is likely doing everything it can to avoid a repeat of 2011’s infamous PSN hack, which revealed data from more than 12.3 million account holders.

Update: This is shaping up to be a truly baffling series of attacks. Lizard Squad also sent a bomb threat over Twitter to American Airlines regarding a flight that Sony Entertainment Online president John Smedley was on, Polygon reports. That plane ended up being diverted from its destination of San Diego to Phoenix.

Taking down computer systems is one thing, but now Lizard Squad is raising national security flags that most hacker groups typically avoid.

Yes. My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys.

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014