If you have been experiencing difficulty accessing the Playstation Network this weekend, there's a reason for that.

Today (Sunday, Aug 24th) Sony confirmed they were forced to shut down PSN due to an outside attempt to "Overwhelm" their system with high traffic. A group called Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack on PSN.

Sony released a statement, saying:

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

SOE's President also confirmed it was due to a large scale DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service), causing many disruptions in online gaming and account sign-ins.

We are under attack by a large scale ddos. Being dealt with but it will impact games until its handled.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014

Contrary to the 2011 incident where Sony's Playstation Network was breached and hackers brought down PSN for a month, compromising all of it's services and revealing personal and credit data from 77 million accounts.

Along with the breach and temporary downing of the Playstation Network, the group sent a tweet to American Airlines saying Sony Online's president's (John Smedley's) plane had explosives on board. Smedley sent the below tweet in response:

Awesome. Flight diverted to Phoenix for security reasons.
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014

The flight was diverted to Phoenix where they were met by authorities. The incident is being further investigated by the FBI offices in Phoenix.

No word as to when the Network will be up and fully running, but they are currently working on getting it going as soon as possible.