Sony is offering its PlayStation owners a five-day membership extension after the company’s network was taken down on Christmas Day by an external attack.
Owners — many of them new after receiving the console for Christmas — were unable to connect to the network due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the Sony system. The attack bombarded the network with huge amounts of traffic, stopping playstation owners connecting to it.
Hacker group Lizard Squad claimed responsibility on Twitter (the tweets have now been deleted) for the Dec. 25 attack , which lasted for three days. Sony announced in a blog post on Dec. 27 that the service had been restored.
“PlayStation Network is back online,” the company wrote. “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.”
In a follow up post on Thursday, titled “A Holiday Thank You,” Sony offered affected users a gift to show “appreciation for your patience.”
PlayStation users who had an active membership or a free trial on Dec. 25 will be eligible to receive a membership extension for five days.
It will be automatically applied to accounts, and if the customer’s account expires by the time it is applied, a five-day PlayStation Plus membership will be offered.
The company also said they will sweeten the deal by granting a 10% discount coupon to customers, which will be available later in the year.
“This discount can be used toward content available on PS Store including blockbuster new releases, award winning indie games, game add-ons and season passes, and an enormous selection of TV and Movies,” Sony wrote.
Microsoft’s Xbox Live was also targeted in the holiday attack. Lizard Squad claims the attacks on Sony and Microsoft were a “huge marketing scheme” for a program called LizardStresser, recently released by the group, that allows anyone to instigate their own DDoS attacks for a fee, a member who uses the alias “Dragon” told the Daily Dot.
On Monday, a member of the Lizard Squad in the UK had his residence raided and was arrested by police, according to multiple reports.
A police report said a 22-year-old man from Twickenham, England, was arrested “on suspicion of fraud by false representation and Computer Misuse Act offences.”
The Daily Dot has named him as Vinnie Omari and the charges are related to an investigation of PayPal fraud, which took place between 2013 and August 2014.
Lizard Squad is currently under investigation by the FBI regarding the Christmas Day attacks on Microsoft and Sony, yet they appear unfazed.
There has been no official statement from authorities on who was responsible for the attack.
Source: mashable.com