Over the weekend, Sony's PlayStation Network was taken down by an attack from an outside group meant to overwhelm the network with traffic and cause it to crash. Other companies, including Blizzard, were targeted as well, but the attackers did not attempt to steal personal information.
Super Smash Bros Leak Seems To Show Full Roster, Video Of New Characters
Sony issued a statement explaining the situation on its PlayStation blog, which was recently updated to say that PSN is now back online.
"The PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network are back online and people can now enjoy the services on their PlayStation devices. The networks were taken offline due to a distributed denial of service attack. We have seen no evidence of any intrusion to the network and no evidence of any unauthorized access to users' personal information."
Watch Half-Life 2 Played In Virtual Reality
DDOS attacks are unfortunately somewhat common online, with a person or persons essentially overloading the target with artificial traffic to knock them offline. It often happens to streamers on Twitch who are disconnected while live, and sometimes to larger companies, as in this case. Sony are also seeking to avoid additional down time, changing their original schedule:
"In light of today's issue, the networks will not undergo the regularly scheduled maintenance, which was planned for Monday, August 25. We will provide an update shortly for when the maintenance will be rescheduled."
