A flight from Dallas to San Diego was re-routed to Phoenix instead following a bomb threat via Twitter. This happened on an odd day when the Sony Online Entertainment’s president, John Smedley, had his flight diverted to Phoenix in addition to Sony’s PlayStation Network being shut down by hackers. These two events happen to be a coincidence and are speculated to be related in some way.John Smedley had previously announced that he was to travel to San Diego, which could have prompted the hackers to look into his flight number to enable them tweet the threat. A Twitter account, under the name Lizard Squad, took up the responsibility for the day’s bizarre events including the PlayStation Network denial-of-service attack tweeting that the network had turned offline. Earlier, Lizard Squad had declared of attempts to slam Sony Entertainment back to the ground. Later, Lizard Squad tweeted of the possibility of explosives being present on the flight 362 of American Airlines, which the Sony Online Entertainment president was on board. Other personalities who were present in that flight include TV personalities, Sam the Cooking Guy and Troy Johnson. Another Twitter user, FameGod, claimed that Lizard Squad was not responsible for that attack and that it was his work. The diverted flight inconvenienced 6 crew members and 179 passengers who played out on Twitter throughout the journey. This prompted immediate investigations by the federal authorities. Several media sources such as CBS News and Game Informer reported that the FBI was apparently investigating into the incident. The plane parked at a remote part of the Phoenix airport, where passengers moved out of the plane, and their bags searched for any explosives. The plane however, resumed its flight to San Diego later. The PlayStation Network, however, reassured their clients that there was no compromise of any personal information. Smedley spoke out about the attack and assured the public that the anonymous hackers would be found and arrested. American Airlines, on the other hand, declined to make comments on the bomb threat. This series of events quickly came to the attention of people all over the globe. This was not the first occurrence of a Sony hacked case. Hackers compromised 77 million user accounts and disrupted the company’s network. Sony took action on the event and upgraded their security system as a result. It was also not the first occurrence of someone tweeting threats to airlines.
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