Sony may have come under attack from a different group of hackers this week when the company’s PlayStation Network began acting up for users, who had difficulty signing in and accessing the Playstation Store on Sunday evening.
Playstation acknowledged “the issues some users are experiencing” late Sunday before updating its Twitter feed early Monday morning to encourage those who experienced “difficulty” to “give it a try now.”
A group named Lizard Squad appears to have taken credit for the cyber attack, but Sony has not yet confirmed whether or not hackers were responsible for the network errors.
PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad
— Lizard Squad (@LizardPatrol) December 8, 2014
The group also took credit for disabling the Xbox Live network last week — which left users unable to download apps, games, movies, and connect with other gamers — and then promised more mayhem to come.
Unlike Santa, we don’t like giving all of our Christmas presents out on one day. This entire month will be entertaining. #LizardSquad
— Lizard Squad (@LizardPatrol) December 6, 2014
If the incident is a hack, it is not nearly as severe as a 2011 Playstation Network security breach that compromised the personal information of more than 70 million users, nor the Sony Pictures Entertainment debacle, which is continuing to haunt the studio.
Most recently, hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace warned employees in an email that their families “will be in danger” unless they denounce the company.
Prime suspect North Korea has since denied involvement in the unprecedented cyber attack on its computers which have compromised sensitive business information about tens of thousands of individuals, including private passwords, salary information and business deals made at the studio.