Hacker Attacks

Microsoft online game network Xbox Live was back up on Friday after an after an apparent hack while Sony's Playstation Network remains down.

The two services were offline much of Christmas Day in an apparent denial of service attack, USA Today reported.

Sony's PlayStation Twitter account said the company was looking into the outages Christmas morning, but the network still appeared down as of Friday morning.

Reuters reports that a Microsoft website that keeps track of the status of Xbox services listed Xbox Live's "core services" as up and running on Friday but several third-party apps on the platform were experiencing limited services.

A group called Lizard Squad is taking credit for the takedown, the paper reported. The group had previously claimed credit for the attacks on the PlayStation Network and online games World of Warcraft and League of Legends back in August.

The PlayStation network problem is the most recent holiday headache for Sony, which was the target of a massive hacking attack in recent weeks in apparent retribution for its release of the comedy "The Interview." The company briefly canceled the Christmas Day release of the film, the plot of which centers around the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but has since made it available in limited theatrical release and home video streaming after criticism.