The “Well, that escalated quickly” meme does not begin to describe what’s transpired in the past 24 hours. For those unfamiliar with the events that began early Sunday morning, I highly advise you to read our article that described the attacks (not hacks) that were directed at Sony, Blizzard, and Riot Games to name a few. Shortly after the attacks on PSN, the group responsible for the DDoS attacks sent a bomb threat to American Airlines flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley.
Awesome. Flight diverted to Phoenix for security reasons.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
Something about security and our cargo. Sitting on Tarmac
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014
More after the jump.
Smedley, for his part, is known to fly back and forth between Dallas and San Diego where SOE has headquarters. Due to the threat, the American Airline flight 362 was diverted to Phoenix. Specifically, the group responsible for the attacks on PSN tweeted flight dispatchers that a bomb was aboard the flight carrying Smedly. Deciding that they needed to further escalate things, the group would send a DM to Smedley that depicted two planes crashing into the World Trade Center with the hashtag #PrayForFlight362. Other tweets also contained an image of an e-Ticket for Smedley’s flight, with a confirmation number.
What makes this story more baffling is that it’s unclear what the motives behind these attacks and threat are. And when it comes to Smedly, he has little to do with PSN and instead helps with development of DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2. Either way, even if the man was the brainchild of PSN and responsible for every singular decision made, the above incident is beyond heinous and there is no excuse for anyone to attack something like PSN be it virtually or threaten the people behind it in real life. Since the events, the FBI has gotten involved and plan to conduct a full investigation. The FBI itself has no comments on the matter.
Discuss:
Are you still affected by the PSN attack or are things running smoothly for you now?
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