The “Reasons” Behind The Latest PSN Attack

In the last few hours, you might have experienced issues with the PlayStation Network. That is because Sony’s online service is being targeted by a hacker group called Lizard Squad, which has taken responsibity for today’s PSN attack (via DDoS) on its Twitter account.

 

As you’re probably aware, this isn’t the first time that the PSN is brought down by hackers. In April 2011, 77 million accounts were affected by the attack launched by Anonymous (later referred to as PlayStation Network Outage), with their personal information (including credit card data) stolen; Sony was only able to restore normal service after 24 days.

This time, things seem to be somewhat under control as a few users are already reporting their ability to connect (personally, I just checked but the friends list won’t load and the PlayStation Store says it’s under maintenance); also, a DDoS attack doesn’t have the ability to collect data, which is certainly a relief. Still, there is a significant difference: in 2011, the PSN service was completely free, while PlayStation 4 users are now forced to have a PlayStation Plus subscription in order to access multiplayer games.

 

This seems to be what Lizard Squad is trying to highlight, as they explained in the following tweets - PSN should be now better protected with the additional money from subscriptions.

Of course, you may want to take everything they say with a grain of salt, especially after such a tweet:

We’ll keep you updated on this situation; it’s worth pointing out that Lizard Squad began with attacks on Blizzard servers (World of Warcraft, Hearthstone), League of Legends and even the indie Path of Exile.