Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot on how the United States can prevent the radical Islamist group from taking over the Middle East. Photo credit: Associated Press.

Opinion: Yes, We Can Defeat ISIS

JAPANESE entertainment giant Sony says its online music and gaming sites have come under attack by a hacker group that also claimed there were explosives on a plane carrying a senior company executive.

The company said on Monday that a US commercial aircraft carrying the president of Sony Online Entertainment had to be diverted after a warning online about the explosives.

“The PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic,” the company said on its PlayStation. Blog, adding that “no personal information has been accessed”.

A spokeswoman for Sony in Tokyo said a person or group using the Twitter name @LizardSquad had claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Today we planted the ISIS flag on @Sony’s servers,” @LizardSquad tweeted said with a photo of a man carrying the Islamic State flag.

Attempts to hack gaming networks aren’t new, but this is the first time that it appears attacks have occurred due to political or religious reasons.

The feed Lizard Squad feed also contained reference to a bomb on a plane.

Yes. My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys. — John Smedley (@j_smedley) August 24, 2014

Separately, John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, tweeted: “Yes. My plane was diverted. Not going to discuss more than that. Justice will find these guys.”

American Airlines Flight 362, bound for San Diego from Dallas, was redirected to Phoenix, according to the company.

More than 150 million accounts were registered with Sony Entertainment Network as of September last year, the company said.