Sony Shuts Down PlayStation Network 'Indefinitely'

[V_R]

Internet gamers were frustrated last week when Sony shut down its PlayStation Network. Now, they might have reason to be worried.

On Monday, the Japanese electronics giant said it is keeping its PlayStation Network videogame service offline indefinitely following a hacking attack it now says may have compromised user’s information.

To ensure the network’s integrity, Sony said it is currently rebuilding the service, which connects more than 75 million PlayStation customers over the Internet, letting them play videogames and chat together. “This is a time intensive process and we’re working to get them back online quickly,” Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold said in a blog post.

Sony is still investigating the “external intrusion” that forced the electronics giant to shut down its network last Wednesday. In an email, the company also said it is also trying to figure out if any personal information, such as credit card numbers, may have been compromised in the attack.

Last week’s outage came at a particularly bad time for the videogame giant. Many of its teenage customers were hoping to virtually punch, kick and choke each other in new videogames, including Warner Bros. Entertainment’s Mortal Kombat, over the three-day Eastern weekend.

Source

 

[Reefsmoka]

Its sad that someone would even hack the playstation network. I hope they get caught.

Also I'm glad you don't have to pay for the playstation network like you do xbox live else sony would be getting a hell of a lot of complaints about people wanting compensation!

 

[V_R]

Also on http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/...ervice-update/

Full text (for those who can't get to site)

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer,

We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:

1) Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;

2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained.

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security, tax identification or similar number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.
To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit or similar types of reports.

We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please check www.eu.playstation.com/psnoutage should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment Teams
Sony Network Entertainment Europe Limited (formerly known as PlayStation Network Europe Limited) is a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited the data controller for PlayStation Network/Qriocity personal data.

 

[Ian]

Yay - more personal details stolen!

Thanks for the update V_R, I've not been able to log in to the PSN for days.

I hope they clarify what they mean by passwords being stolen... if they stored passwords without encryption then there is a serious problem there...

 

[floppybootstomp]

Well that's a damn shame

I didn't realise online gaming with PS3 was for free.

That's one of the most disagreeable elements of the Xbox 360 having to pay for their 'Gold' online service.

I don't subscribe myself.

By way of mentioning, Makros are advertising the 160Gb PS3 with 1 controller for £170 inc VAT atm, which is a pretty good price.

 

[V_R]

Its a bitch aint it.....

Ian: yeh they better be encrypted, i went to change my pass on the website, but i cant.....

I'm ****ed off it took them this long to say anything.

 

[V_R]

FAQ regarding this is now up...

http://faq.en.playstation.com/cgi-bin/scee_gb.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?locale=en_GB&p_faqid=5593

 

[Ian]

Ian: yeh they better be encrypted, i went to change my pass on the website, but i cant.....

I've not seen them mention any encryption, which you'd think they would do asap (as it would stop a large part of the problem)... so it looks like they made a huge error there if that is indeed the case. Really, really annoyed about this if they have just stored passwords as plain text.

 

[V_R]

Tell me about it, i think its unbelievable if no encryption is/was used. Surely they must have all customer data encrypted....

 

[V_R]

We wanted to take this opportunity to clarify a point and answer one of the most frequently asked questions today.
There’s a difference in timing between when we identified there was an intrusion and when we learned of consumers’ data being compromised. We learned there was an intrusion 19th April and subsequently shut the services down. We then brought in outside experts to help us learn how the intrusion occurred and to conduct an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the incident. It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach. We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly yesterday evening.
For those who were looking there’s also an FAQ with some more on frequently asked questions
Thank you for your continued patience and support.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/04/27/clarifying-a-few-psn-points/

 

[V_R]

Well, I've just cancelled the card associated with my PSN account. Overkill? Maybe, but peace of mind for me.

 

[Ian]

Banks must be treating this very seriously... this is what I saw when I logged in to my online banking (and I've never seen anything other than a generic notice before):

Sony PlayStation Network Data Breach - Important Customer Information

You may have seen the recent news in relation to the Sony PlayStation Network data breach. Please be reassured that XXXX Bank treats data compromises extremely seriously. We do not believe at this time that enough information has been compromised to put your account at risk and therefore do not feel it necessary to block our customer's cards. We are however monitoring the situation and working closely with the Industry and will advise our customers if any further action needs to be taken.

 

[V_R]

Supposed hacker chat-logs reveal PSN security lapses

http://www.vg247.com/2011/04/27/supposed-hacker-chat-logs-reveal-stunning-psn-security-lapses/

 

[V_R]

http://www.youtube.com/user/Anon19861

 

[captain zed]

I have scrapped my credit card after a quick call to my bank. They have a fraud team on the case and i was assured if anything went wrong that Sony would foot the bill.
It will 3-5 working days for a new card though.
In future Sony will be getting paid through those cards with credit on them.

 

[V_R]

New update....

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/27/qa-1-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/

First off, we want to again thank you for your patience. We know that the PlayStation Network and Qriocity outage has been frustrating for you. We know you are upset, and so we are taking steps to make our services safer and more secure than ever before. We sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern this outage has caused, and rest assured that we’re going to get the services back online as quickly as we can.
We received a number of questions and comments yesterday and early today relating to the criminal intrusion into our network. We’d like to address some of the most common questions today.
We are also going to continue to post updates to this blog with any additional information and insight that we can over the next few days.
We are reading your comments. We are listening to your suggestions. Please keep them coming.
Thank you.

The main bit we all wanted to know....

Q: Was my personal data encrypted?
A: All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

 

[EvanDavis]

Well, I've just cancelled the card associated with my PSN account. Overkill? Maybe, but peace of mind for me.

Rather be safe than sorry

 

[Anon_F]

Sony to resume some PlayStation gaming services.
Sony has said it will resume some services on its PlayStation Network, which was shut after the theft of personal details of about 77m users.

Sony officials said they had boosted the security of their computer systems after user names, email addresses and log-in details were stolen.

Executives, including Kazuo Hirai, the head of Sony's PlayStation unit, apologised for the security breach.

The theft has prompted legal action and investigations in the US and Europe.

"The organisation has worked around the clock to bring these services back on line and are doing so only after we had verified increased levels of security across our networks," said Mr Hirai in a statement.

He is seen as the frontrunner to take over as head of Sony Corp.
Deep bow "These illegal attacks obviously highlight the widespread problem with cyber-security," Mr Hirai's statement said.

Later, at a news conference, Mr Hirai and two other Sony executives apologised and bowed deeply. "We apologise deeply for causing great unease and trouble to our users," he said.

PlayStation users got their first indication that something was wrong with the service when it became unavailable on 20 April.
In the following days, Sony issued three brief statements asking users to be patient while it investigated an "external intrusion", or hack.

The full extent of the security breach became apparent on 27 April.
In a statement posted on the official PlayStation blog, the company said user account information for the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services had been compromised following an "illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network".

Sony said that although credit card data was encrypted and there was no evidence it was stolen, the theft of the data could not be ruled out.

The PlayStation network allows gamers to download software and play with other users.

 

[Stoneboysteve]

I would immediately contact the credit card company if you even suspect your data was lost. This is only the beginning...
Stoneboysteve

 

[floppybootstomp]

What's the difference between a deep bow and a shallow bow I wonder?