Sony's PlayStation Network targeted in attack

Sony confirmed an outage of its PlayStation Network due to an outside attempt to "overwhelm" the electronics giant's online service, part of a bizarre tale that includes the flight of Sony Online's president being diverted for security reasons.

In a statement released Sunday, Sony revealed that the company's PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network were hit by "an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic." Sony says the company is working to restore PSN service as soon as possible.

"Although this has impacted your ability to access our network and enjoy our services, no personal information has been accessed," says Sony in the statement.

Sony Online Entertainment chief John Smedley confirmed its network was targeted by a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack, an external attempt at clogging servers and making services unavailable to their users.

A group called Lizard Squad claimed credit for the attack through Twitter. They also claimed credit for similar attacks on World of Warcraft developers Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends.

The group also sent a tweet from their account to American Airlines saying Smedley's flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to San Diego had explosives on board. Smedley confirmed his flight was diverted in a subsequent tweet.

Michelle Mohr, an American Airlines spokeswoman, confirmed that Flight 362 from Dallas/Fort Worth to San Diego was diverted to Phoenix "due to a security-related issue."

She said the plane, a Boeing 757 with 179 passengers and six crew members on board, landed safely at 11:57 a.m. Phoenix time and was "met by authorities" there.

The plane was still in Phoenix, she said, but American Airlines was moving to get the passengers to their destination. "Of course we're going to accommodate our customers and get them to San Diego," she said.

Mohr referred further questions to the Phoenix office of the FBI.

This is not the first time Sony's online network for PlayStation devices has been shut down by outside forces. In 2011, PSN was out for more than a month after hackers compromised the service, exposing personal data and credit card information from 77 million accounts.

At the time, the PSN breach was considered among the biggest ever, according to security experts.

Contributing: Greg Toppo

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.