Official PSN discussion thread

[kyhadley]

to clear things up though, PSN is not free as it is an advertised feature of the PS3, its built into the price

[DDRGuido]

to clear things up though, PSN is not free as it is an advertised feature of the PS3, its built into the price

yeah if PSN wasn't part of the PS3 I would have x360 and XBL.

This couldn't come at a worse time for me.

no online poker
no ps3 online

bruuutal...I've already watched a lot of bad movies on Netflix.

[dave]

Thank God I like playing Tiger Woods 12 in offline career mode.

[ryne candy]

Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services. We are currently working to send a similar message to the one below via email to all of our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems. These malicious actions have also had an impact on your ability to enjoy the services provided by PlayStation Network and Qriocity including online gaming and online access to music, movies, sports and TV shows. We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.

We’re working day and night to ensure it is done as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and feedback.

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, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password 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 at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may 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 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 reports. We are providing the following information for those who wish to consider it:

U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.

We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S. credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus place a “fraud alert” on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you, it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report, please contact any one of the agencies listed below.

Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or www.oag.state.md.us.

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 contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment

[stevsta]

psn is so much better than xblive its not even fair to compare them

 

[leaffan]

This might be one of the worst security breaches I've seen in a while.

Seriously for the dudes here if you have the same password for PSN as you do for other things go ahead and change them.

[Twigg4075]

to clear things up though, PSN is not free as it is an advertised feature of the PS3, its built into the price

So, what does that say about the 360 then? It's the same price yet doesn't have bluray and you still have to pay for Live? We're paying for dedicated servers on 360 then, right? Oh wait.

Have I mentioned how much I love hackers? I'm so glad they are working for us and protecting our rights and not just stealing shit. *extreme sarcasm*

[Prodigal Son]

Good thing Sony let you guys know all your information was leaked 6 days later.

[padman59]

I would like to give a hearty "Fuck You" to GeoHot and anyone else distributing the tools that allow people to do this shit as well as Sony for having shit security measures.

[Virix]

Sony stay fuckin up

[Rayman]

I smell a class-action suit

[CCBrink]

:iaintevenmad: though

[Misogi]

I smell a class-action suit

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is "demanding answers" about why Sony Computer Entertainment of America failed to inform customers of the data breach of the PlayStation Network on April 20.

"When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised," Blumenthal said in a release. "Compounding this concern is the troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach."

Of course, Sony just issued a statement that it says will be emailed to "all of our registered account holders" but, as we noted in our post, it's been nearly six days since the "intrusion" first took place. Blumenthal elaborated, "Although the breach occurred nearly a week ago, Sony has not notified customers of the intrusion, or provided information that is vital to allowing individuals to protect themselves from identity theft, such as informing users whether their personal or financial information may have been compromised."

Sen. Blumenthal also sent a letter to SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton, which can be found after the break.

April 26, 2011

Mr. Jack Tretton
President and CEO
Sony Computer Entertainment America
919 East Hillsdale Boulevard
Foster City, CA USA 94404

Dear Mr. Tretton:

I am writing regarding a recent data breach of Sony's PlayStation Network service. I am troubled by the failure of Sony to immediately notify affected customers of the breach and to extend adequate financial data security protections.

It has been reported that on April 20, 2011, Sony's PlayStation Network suffered an "external intrusion" and was subsequently disabled. News reports estimate that 50 million to 75 million consumers – many of them children – access the PlayStation Network for video and entertainment. I understand that the PlayStation Network allows users to store credit card information online to facilitate the purchasing of content such as games and movies through the PlayStation Network. A breach of such a widely used service immediately raises concerns of data privacy, identity theft, and other misuse of sensitive personal and financial data, such as names, email addresses, and credit and debit card information.

When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised. Additionally, PlayStation Network users should be provided with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services, for two years, the costs of which should be borne by Sony. Affected individuals should also be provided with sufficient insurance to protect them from the possible financial consequences of identity theft.

I am concerned that PlayStation Network users' personal and financial information may have been inappropriately accessed by a third party. Compounding this concern is the troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach. Although the breach occurred nearly a week ago, Sony has not notified customers of the intrusion, or provided information that is vital to allowing individuals to protect themselves from identity theft, such as informing users whether their personal or financial information may have been compromised. Nor has Sony specified how it intends to protect these consumers.

PlayStation Network users deserve more complete information on the data breach, as well as the assurance that their personal and financial information will be securely maintained. I appreciate your prompt response on this important issue.

Sincerely,

/s/

Richard Blumenthal
United States Senate

tl;dr dead on the money.

[Spidey]

Good thing Sony let you guys know all your information was leaked 6 days later.

This is what aggravates me. I'm assuming Sony knew the personal data was taken days ago. Thats something they should be informing everyone about immediately. I cant even fathom the logic internally at Sony that would make them wait. People are gonna find out, what solid logic is there to wait to tell people. The only outcome there is more trouble.

As for the entire situation, assuming he wasn't involved in the hacking and stealing of data, I don't really blame GeoHot. All he did was break through and open up the console. Same shit happens to just about every device and no one complains. How may people hear have jailbroken iphones, rooted droids, modded 360s, etc... On the flip side though, I don't blame Sony for going after him. He had to know the risks when getting into this type of stuff.

I blame Sony for having shitty security and groups like Anonymous for pulling these type of attacks. Didn't really care about them taking down the network for a day a couple weeks back. Whatever, companies/sites get attacked and taken down all the time. However, if they are behind stealing personal data, I definitely have an issue with that. I am curious to see if this was their work or some other group. Anonymous has given me the impression that they are simply out for revenge against Sony and would not involve the users. As of now they are denying any involvement.

[Leftwich]

PP, this is a gaming/sports website so the majority of our posters are big gamers. I understand you have some sort of opinion of this but jesus shut the fuck up. If you don't want to hear what they have to say then don't fucking read it.