'External intrusion' causing PSN outage

Today, the hacker collective known as Anonymous posted a statement saying that its organization was not behind the ongoing PlayStation Network outage. However, Sony Computer Entertainment America is now saying the reason the PSN is down is due to an outside attack.

In a brief statement on the official PlayStation Blog, SCEA senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold explained the current situation.

"An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services," he said. "In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th."

He continued, "Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience."

Sony did not offer an estimate on how long its investigation would take, but did promise more information shortly. So it remains unclear when service will be restored to the PlayStation Network's 75-million-plus users.