San Francisco, Jul 5 (IANS): A hacker who broke into Microsoft and Sony gaming services in 2013-14 has been sentenced to 27 months in prison in the US.

Utah-born 23-year-old Austin Thompson, known as 'DerpTrolling', launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on Microsoft's Xbox Live, Electronic Arts' Origin service and the Sony PlayStation Online, The Inquirer reported on late Thursday.

Arrested four years later in 2018, he pleaded guilty to the cyber-attacks.

Thompson said he carried out the DDoS attacks "to spoil everyone's holiday", "to make people spend time with their families" and "for the lulz".

In a DDoS attack, multiple compromised computer systems attack a target, such as a server, website or other network resource, and cause a denial of service for users.

"Thompson has also been ordered to pay $95,000 in restitution to Daybreak Games, formerly Sony Online Entertainment," said the report.

Thompson is believed to have been the brain behind the "DerpTrolling" hacking group, active since 2011.