PlayStation Network Back Online, No User Information Compromised

Reuters reports that Sony has secured PlayStation Network. The network is back online and fully operational, and no user information was compromised.

PSN was taken down by hackers over the weekend, who overwhelmed the system with high traffic, similar to a denial of service attack. This action did not involve any actual intrusion into PSN’s data, so no user data was ever at risk at this time.

Sony’s online services were struck by a major security breach in 2011, which hit not only PSN, but Sony’s other online content delivery systems as well. The system was down for 24 days, and let to 77 million accounts being compromised.

Sony finalized the terms of the settlement for this breach just last month, and they have worked hard to beef up security of their online systems since then. Sony hopes that their online services will become a major component of their business in the coming years, as they still work out the route to financial recovery.

This weekend, a hacker group named Lizard Squad took credit for the attack on PSN's servers, as well as for the servers for Battle.Net, League of Legends, and Path of Exile. They also coerced a flight carrying SOE President John Smedley to be diverted by claiming it carried a bomb threat.

Sony originally planned scheduled maintenance for PSN today. They have indefinitely delayed this, and will update fans when the maintenance will be rescheduled.