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.
Out now on PS4: “PSN Outage: Remastered.” It is a remake of the classic PSN Outage of 2011, except now in glorious 1080p and 60FPS
— Ex-CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) August 24, 2014
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.
Yes. My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
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.
Yes. My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys.
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) August 25, 2014
welsh_gar
‘We really didn’t care who did it’ so we named him and posted a picture of his tweet. Lame.
TheMagus
While the action of this group seem Nobel in there intensions. However radicals like them will attract un wanted attention from people like myself and others like me to where they have angered us in there actions. See your not safe from harm magic is real and powerful and my demons will gut you in your sleep and haunt the most distant corners of your mind and while there not gonna just come out of the shadows and rip your souls out like the church wants you to believe they will haunt your dreams and drive you mad.
See your not safe behind your computer and you can be harmed so while you mess up my time wanted to spend with my girl for a few hours I will be chanting and calling to the darkness and you will pay for your transgressions…
Moonpie
The PSN is accessible via the PS3 but as of a few minutes ago the PS4 is still down. If they weren’t attention seeking wh0res they wouldn’t have said anything, everyone would have assumed maintenance had started early and Sony would have been painted as the villain, instead the wh0res get made gamer enemy number 1 and Sony have time to make a proper response
fossy1
My’n is still down as well (PS4), getting beyond a joke to be honest
a inferior race
The us blog has confirmed maintenance has been postponed.
hazelam
they sent a bomb threat?
just how stupid are these guys?
Lyts1985
Kids for you mate. I think it was at that point when everyone stopped taking them seriously…
fossy1
How the hell is it to end the psn greed, they are only charging £40 a year that is nothing and it is completely woth it, he must be so sad to hack Sony