Lizard Squad Admits Taking Down PlayStation Network On Black Friday

If you were having trouble connecting to the PlayStation Network yesterday, you might have the hacking group Lizard Squad to thank. An hour after the group's founder posted to Twitter that "itz bouta rain packets", Sony's "Ask PlayStation" account tweeted that it was investigating connectivity issues. Lizard Squad either delivered on its promise, or is trying to reap the benefits of a major coincidence.

Video games are always a hot item on big shopping days like Black Friday, so it can be expected that networks like PSN are going to get hammered simply due to the fact that so many people are trying to access the network at once. Part of the traffic surge might be from new owners trying to register their consoles online, while those snatching up cheap games and downloading them could contribute as well.

PSN #OFFLINE #CHIPPY #LIZARDSQUAD

— ¢hippy (@chippyshell) November 27, 2015

We are aware that some users are having connectivity issues with PSN this morning. Thanks for your patience as we investigate.

— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) November 27, 2015

Still, this kind of attack is common for Lizard Squad. Notably, the group managed to take down both PSN and Xbox Live last Christmas, easing off a day later only due to the fact that Kim Dotcom offered the group a fleet of free accounts on his MEGA cloud storage service.

Other notable escapades include the taking down of North Korea's Internet, hacking Malaysia Airlines' website, and releasing a DDoS tool that allows regular folks to shell out a few bucks to attack a website or service of their choosing.

This is by no means encouragement, but given the group's apparent hate of Sony and Microsoft, it wouldn't be too surprising to see another attack take place for the Christmas holiday season. Let's hope that both companies learned from last year's incident and will try to prevent such an attack from making a notable impact on eager gamers just looking to kick back and enjoy.