Online gamers utilizing the PlayStation Network were without service for several hours Sunday evening and Monday morning after a group of hackers managed to gain access to the network. Sony was able to get the network up and running Monday morning.

A group called Lizard Squad seems to be those responsible for the hijacking of the network. The group also caused a Sony Online Entertainment executive's plane to be diverted.

Lizard Squad tweeted to American Airlines that there may be explosives on the plane that John Smedely was riding in. Smedley, the executive onboard the flight, was traveling from Dallas to San Diego, but had to be re-routed to Phoenix due to the security threat.

Smedley tweeted that he was indeed aboard a plane that had to be re-routed.

After landing in Phoenix, the plane was searched thoroughly and no explosives or threats were discovered.

Sony says that no personal information was accessed by the hackers and the network was just overwhelmed "with artificially high traffic" that caused it to become unstable and forced Sony to take it down.

Sony spokesman Satoshi Nakajima confirmed the hack took place but isn't confirming that Lizard Squad was the responsible party for the attack.

Read Sony's original blog post below:

"Like other major networks around the world, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network have been impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic.

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

"We will continue to work towards fixing this issue and hope to have our services up and running as soon as possible.

"We regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

What do you think of the attack on Sony's network as well as the threat on the plane that the Sony exec. was flying in? Do you use the PlayStation Network to play games? Did you notice the outage? Leave us a comment below and let us know.