PlayStation Network to be down for 'day or two' as Sony's response gives birth to raging theories

The latest official update on the PlayStation Network (PSN) outage has alerted the users that the Network is set to be down for a full day or two, even as several questions and conspiracy theories on the outside attack on Sony emerged online.

While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we're able to get the service completely back up and running. Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter. Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we'll update you again as soon as we can, informed the 'Latest Update on PSN Outage', posted by Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media, April 21 on the PlayStation blog.

Sony's response to the PSN outage has, at the best, been vague. Hours back, the company said on its EU blog that the network outage may be a result of the possibility of targeted behaviour by an outside party.

There is no scheduled time for the next update from PlayStation on their progress.

The attack on PSN comes in close on the heels of the recent popular releases such as Mortal Kombat and Portal 2.

With the tech press kept away from any further details - evident in an Engadget headline that reads 'PlayStation Network down for a long count, what's up Sony?' - speculation is running high on the internet. Questions have emerged of something similar to the system updates that were recently made available for XBox 360 would be released. In January 2011, Microsoft sneaked a super secret feature into its recent, Boot-to-Disc-restoring mandatory Xbox 360 firmware update: the ability to stop Call of Duty: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 pirates and hackers. In March 2011, Treyarch released the First Strike map pack DLC, which came to Xbox 360 at the beginning of February. The pack had substantial fixes, including an update to the matchmaking system in multiplayer mode. The removal of an aggravating bug which updates the leaderboards after each match regardless of how it ranks against your overall performance was among the fixes on the zombie mode.

Meanwhile, the indications of an outside attack has also raised a theory enquiring into the possibility of involvement of Anonymous, the anarchic 'hacktivist' community. Examiner questioned, 'Did Anonymous take down Sony's Playstation 3 network?', while another online publication, Spong.com, noted PlayStation Network Outage Prompts 'Hacking' Conspiracy. Bloggers and Tweeps are also bustling with theories on Anonymous' involvement in the PlayStation network outage.

However, the hackers have claimed innoncence on their Facebook page.

The issue with Anonymous began with Sony's court case against George Hotz, which has since been settled out of court, the Examiner.com reported.

In January 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment America filed for a restraining order against the hacker for posting a method of jailbreaking PlayStation 3 consoles, allowing them to run other operating systems and software not authorized by Sony. A video of the jailbreak was released by George Hotz, who uses the alias 'geohot' on the popualr video sharing website YouTube. He posted a link to the software, which can be loaded on to any PS3, on his blog, an act that attracted a trafficking charge in the lawsuit.

In the complaint, Sony accused George Hotz, Hector Martin Cantero, Sven Peter, and John Does of violating copyright, the computer fraud and abuse act, and of California law; besides acting to circumvent the copy protections built into the device and trafficked in circumvention devices and components thereof that enable unauthorized access to and copying of one or more PS3 System and SCEA's other copyrighted works.