PlayStation Network PSN Offline Down Christmas

There'll be very little Christmas cheer for the unfortunate band of technicians tasked with keeping the PlayStation Network online this month, as attackers have threatened to bring Sony's service to its knees over the all-important holiday break. A group named Phantom Squad has already successfully unsettled Xbox Live this evening, and it says that the Japanese giant is next in its cross hairs.

Of course, this is fast becoming a regular thing, as PSN was disrupted for days last holiday, resulting in multiple arrests and some apologetic offers from the platform holder as compensation. While the group claims that it's targeting the gaming giants as a means of exposing security flaws, our understanding is that DDoS attacks are incredibly difficult to defend against.

To be fair, Sony's online service has been much sturdier this year, so hopefully it's found a way of at least mitigating the sudden spikes in bogus traffic. It looks like it's going to be a long end to the month for the manufacturer's network maintenance team, though – here's hoping that they can keep us all happily connected while we enjoy some time off over the course of the fast-approaching holidays.

[source eurogamer.net]