PlayStation Network: PSN Restored After Three Days Of Disrupted Service Following Lizard Squad Hack

Three days after the Lizard Squad hacked the Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Network and the Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox Live, service for the former is finally being restored. Sony announced PSN service has been restored in a blog post this weekend, while Xbox Live returned online Thursday after Kim Dotcom offered lifetime premium passes to Mega, his cloud-storage and file-hosting site, to Lizard Squad members.

Many users continued to encounter problems signing into PSN Saturday, when Sony said it was gradually restoring service. On the popular gaming forum NeoGAF, some users around the world said they were able to access the network, but other users said they were able to log on only to be kicked off after a few minutes.

In its latest service update, Sony said:

“PlayStation Network is back online. As you probably know, PlayStation Network and some other gaming services were attacked over the holidays with artificially high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online gameplay. This may have prevented your access to the network and its services over the last few days.”

In the most recent messages on the NeoGAF thread discussing the disruption, some gamers said they have been able to use PSN for several hours without any issues, and other gamers said they are still experiencing connectivity issues, such as being able to sign in through the PS Vita but not via the PS4 and being unable to access the online store. Gamers said the tip shared Saturday -- changing the MTU setting in the PS4’s network settings -- allowed them to access PSN.

One of the alleged members of the Lizard Squad showed his face during an interview with Sky News. Going by the handle “Ryan,” he claimed the hack was designed in part to raise awareness over Microsoft and Sony's poor security measures. Meanwhile, the hacker group turned its attention to Tor over the weekend.