PSN Down With NW-31456-9 Error Code, Reportedly Attacked [UPDATE]

Although PSN maintenance was confirmed for tomorrow, PSN in its entirety appears to be down at the moment, with any attempt to access the service showing the NW-31456-9 error code.

“Cannot connect to the server within the time limit.” reads the warning, and that may suggest a DDoS attack where the server is overloaded with requests, preventing users from accessing the services. The group responsible appears to be LizardSquad, who are claiming on twitter that they did this to end Sony’s greed.

https://twitter.com/LizardSquad/status/503488179651878912

PSN being attacked in such a way isn’t something new – it happened a few years ago which led to the service being down for weeks, preventing people from getting online and playing their games. If that happens again, it’s going to be a huge blow for Sony. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope they get it back online soon and this doesn’t happen again.

UPDATE:  Sony have confirmed that the network is down due to a DDoS attack rather than a hack.

Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic.

Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed.

We will continue to work towards fixing this issue and hope to have our services up and running as soon as possible.

We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

Blizzard, Battle.net, Riot Games and other sites have also been hit by the attack. The group also posted a tweet to American Airlines reporting a bomb on an aircraft, resulting in the flight being diverted. I suspect they will be getting a visit from the authorities quite soon.

Of course the internet being what it is, some have seen the more amusing side of the problem.


UPDATE #2: Apparently it’s not the LizardSquad, it is some other muppet and the reptiles are taking credit. Not that anyone cares.

UPDATE #3: The FBI are now investigating the bomb threats posted by LizardSquad to American Airlines Flight 362, the aircraft carrying John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment.

UPDATE #4: In the wee hours of the morning, PSN began to come back up and appears almost completely back to normal now. No word on whether or not the planned PSN maintenance for today will go on as scheduled in the wake of these events, but it’s probably best to assume that it will.

 

114 Comments

  1. I’m not taking sides i mean i was p*ssed right off with my ISP years back (Talk Talk) i was paying good money for poor service, i went through normal channels, got no-where i did’nt ask a group of nbodies to bring entire network domn, mess with ALL Talk talk customers, i simply ended contract, switched to BT.

    Now myself and entire street, Village and surrounding area having huge issues with BT, all of us followed channels, got no-where, BT deny any issues, yet we are’nt out there storming the exchange, removing service for eveyone, whilst screaming about BT’s profits per minute, we just used a bigger stick in form of saying unless they get it sorted, we’ll get media involved, already talk of MP involvement, Rural customers paying ‘top dollar prices for poor service’ etc etc.

    There’s usally an answer to an issue that does’nt involve you killing off a service for everyone and can anyone name a corporation that has’nt shafted customers at least once?.

  2. The PSN is sub-par compared to similar services but hacking it? I get there intentions and empathise with it but we’re the ones taking the brunt of this.
    It sucks right now, but hopefully Sony do take LizardSquads intentions on board and start during up the PSN, coz it’s currently about as reliable as a chocolate teapot. Maintenance every few weeks, constant Store issues.
    Although my only major issue with Sony is the shoddy rubber on the initial batch of controllers. Having to send them back, with 10 day turnaround sucks

  3. Why do these hackers always target Sony? Are they Microsoft fanboys? Might explain why they are complete dicks.

    • Well played sir

    • I think xbl must be more robust and therefore harder to bring down.

      • I guess MS can just turn it off and on again to fix any of their issues :-)

    • The guy who apparently did it is a CoD clan player on ps3/4, I’m guessing he got owned and this is his tantrum.

  4. As of 19:53 mine is still down with the typical 80710092

    • Mine too and I’m starting to get a bit annoyed. Sunday tv is bloody crap too. Grrrrr

      • Dragons den is on whoo hoo!
        I can’t access the store but I was playing FIFA online on my vita earlier.

  5. Still no joy with PSN, it’s at times like this when I wish I had purchased physical media as opposed to downloading from store. Just hope no user details have been obtained like they were a few years ago

  6. Lol look at all the bedroom security “experts” here. DDOS is just an inconvenience, not a happy k or security issue.

    • What’s a happy k? Something on the McDonalds menu?!

      • If you don’t know, i can’t tell you…

  7. Coincidentally(!) the president of SOE was on the diverted flight… Fucking assholes! I really hope they get a visit from the relevant authorities, sooner rather than later.

    • That was the work of lizard squad. They took credit for the hack and made a fake bomb threat knowing that he was on that flight.

    • If they live in America then that was a very foolish move, if they get charged with terrorism, their lives are over.

      • The person who really did the hack has already exposed lizard squad, they are gonna get v& pretty soon. Whoever runs the account seems a little disturbed, he needs to be ‘secured’ imo.

      • Hopefully that stupid tweet is the one that’ll get um caught. Idiots.

        Secured…? Hopefully he soon will be ;-)

  8. Ohai guiz.. Here is the reason psn got hacked https://m.youtube.com/user/FamedGod and that is the guy who did it. Lizard squad is someone taking credit for somebody else’s work. Lizard Squads members ip addresses have all been leaked because they are so fail. I own a ps 1/2/3/4 and if my details are vulnerable because sony are too lame to sort things out then I’m glad this happened.

  9. This article needs updating again due to the fact that it is wrong.

    • Which bit is wrong?

      • It’s not lizard squad and it is a hack as well as a ddos attack. Watch the youtube vid.

      • So says ‘Fame’. There’s no proof either way, though Lizards claim seems more believable as he seemed to have knowledge of the attack before anyone else mentioned it.

      • Also, no one has said they’ve hacked Sony’s servers. The YouTube vid simply condemns Sony for allowing jailbroken devices to logon to the network… It implies, to me at least, that this is what facilitated the DDoS attack.

  10. Here.. The REAL person that took sony out https://mobile.twitter.com/FamedGod

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