Official PSN discussion thread

[KnightNoles]

*pokes head out of bomb shelter*

"is it over yet?"

[JayDizzle]

*pokes head out of bomb shelter*

"is it over yet?"

Supposedly there's still a week to go before we're even allowed online yet.

[padman59]

Supposedly there's still a week to go before we're even allowed online yet.

If I had to guess (and I'm hoping this will happen), they'll roll out the firmware update along with the ability to play online in a couple of days, but the store, Qriocity, and other services won't be available until next week sometime.

[KnightNoles]

Supposedly there's still a week to go before we're even allowed online yet.

I should have added *sarcasm* to that post.. I know it will be awhile :doh:

[Spidey]

PlayStation Network Hack: Who Did It?
By Kevin Poulsen

It’s one of the biggest data breaches in history. Now that Sony has come clean — sort of — on a computer intrusion this month that exposed personal information on 77 million PlayStation Network users, one obvious question remains: Who pulled off the hack?

In the old days, the answer would be simple: some kid did it. But today’s underground is more complicated — a slew of competing players with different agendas and techniques. Here’s a quick rundown on the likely suspects.

Anonymous

While noncriminal pranks are their stock in trade, the griefers of Anonymous have been on a hacktivism spree of late, staging distributed denial-of-service attacks against the corporate enemies of WikiLeaks, then famously cracking the computer security firm HBGary Federal and exposing the shady plotting of its CEO. Coincidentally, Anonymous declared Sony as its latest protest target right around the time of the intrusion. They were unhappy with Sony’s lawsuit against PlayStation 3 rooter George Hotz, and unsatisfied by the settlement deal reached between Hotz and the company this month.

But spokespeople for Anonymous have denied any role in the PlayStation Network hack, and the whole flavor of the hack just isn’t Anonymous’ style: they’ve pulled intrusions in the past, but computer crime isn’t their mainstay, and a stealth run through the network of a corporate giant is decidedly short on lulz.

Verdict: Probably innocent

China

Chinese hackers have been responsible for some of the most sophisticated known intrusions in recent years — low-and-slow attacks against defense contractors, human rights groups and Silicon Valley bigwigs like Google. The attackers typically get in by hitting a single employee with an exploit, and then carefully expand through the network until they’ve found what they’re looking for — generally trade secrets, source code, or intelligence.

A list of 77 million names, dates of birth and passwords could be useful as the raw material for future attacks, but aside from that, Sony’s gaming infrastructure is not a logical target for this bunch. You also wouldn’t expect a professional Chinese intrusion to be detected so quickly.

Verdict: Innocent

Random Recreational Hacker

This breed still exists, though now in much smaller numbers than the professionals. The PlayStation Network would be an alluring target for a bored teenager or twenty-something who spends a lot of time grinding through multiplayer shooters — to paraphrase Silence of the Lambs, you covet what you see every day. A recreational hacker might go after the user database as a trophy.

Verdict: Maybe guilty

For-Profit Cyberthief

These guys, largely concentrated in Ukraine and Russia, know databases like the backs of their hands — they dream in SQL — and similar, if smaller, stolen databases are bought and sold routinely over carder forums and in private transactions.

In this scenario, the credit card numbers potentially stolen in the hack aren’t as important as they seem. According to Sony, the CVV2 — the security code on the back of card — wasn’t stored in the compromised database, which greatly reduces the cards’ usability to fraudsters. Credit cards without the magstripe data or CVV2 are among the least valuable commodities.

But combined with the other data, the database is valuable indeed. The passwords (which Sony evidently didn’t bother to hash) could be a gold mine, because people have a tendency to use the same password everywhere; you can bet a big chunk of those 77 million PlayStation Network passwords will unlock everything from Facebook accounts to online banking. The e-mail addresses could be used in phishing attacks, with the fraudster using stolen details — like the target’s date-of-birth — to increase the chances of a response. Hell, even if it were just sold as a spam list, the Sony database could draw a pretty penny.

Verdict: Probably guilty

[stevsta]

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1164641p1.html

may 2nd is the date they are saying its going to be turned back on

[Colonel Angus]

Make that June 2 then..

[Twigg4075]

It depends on the person but, I know in cases of a 2 of my friends while it wasn't an outright negative, they could not use that credit card for 90 days while the company sorted out the "logistics". Also, anything can really hurt your credit score under the right circumstance. I mean, my credit score was hurt because it was checked 4 times in less than 8 months.

That's one thing I never understood about credit scores. Your whole life you're taught that you should shop around, especially when making a significant purchase. Yet if you shop around when it comes to a car or a house they have to run your credit every time, which fucks you in the long run.

My credit score is over 800 so if this Sony debacle fucks that up heads will roll.

As far as this being overblown, I could go either way. On one side I think we all should be paranoid because identity theft is something that no one wants to fuck with. On the other side, this shit happens all the time. Hell, I received an e-mail from FIVE different companies a few weeks ago saying that they all used the same company to distribute e-mails and that company had been attacked by hackers and my personal info may have been compromised. I also had a situation where some piece of shit that worked for our credit union was selling personal info to her lowlife friends and family. We were all notified that again, our info could've been compromised.

If there is a silver lining in all of this it's that this is a well known and highly reported issue. So if something were to happen and you had to start calling the credit bureaus and going through that nightmare, they should be very familiar with the situation.

Now, personally, I think Sony should partner with Life Lock and offer every customer free services for a year just to be on the safe side.

[SethMode]

That's one thing I never understood about credit scores. Your whole life you're taught that you should shop around, especially when making a significant purchase. Yet if you shop around when it comes to a car or a house they have to run your credit every time, which fucks you in the long run.

My credit score is over 800 so if this Sony debacle fucks that up heads will roll.

I think that a situation like this wouldn't hurt a person with established good credit, but I think it could hurt people like my girlfriend who has been the victim of identity theft twice already (talk about bad luck, glad she doesn't use PSN).

As far as your first point, credit is such incredible bullshit. I think all of the cliches they tell you (shop around, have debt to increase credit, etc...) are just rumors the credit card companies created to make money off of us. That is obviously coming straight from my fairly uneducated, conspiracy theory brain, but still, it doesn't add up to me.

[tigstah]

As far as your first point, credit is such incredible bullshit. I think all of the cliches they tell you (shop around, have debt to increase credit, etc...) are just rumors the credit card companies created to make money off of us. That is obviously coming straight from my fairly uneducated, conspiracy theory brain, but still, it doesn't add up to me.

so true. especially when the credit card companies were going after kids entering college most with no jobs. so they get a credit card with 17-21% interest, they are starting them off on a bad foot. in the end dont borrow more than you can pay back. in my line of work, i see people who have lived beyond their means.

one of the biggest scams i have every run across was interest only loans. those homeowners were fucked in the ass very very hard.

[Buzzman]

what is an "interest only" loan?

[Misogi]

[Prodigal Son]

what is an "interest only" loan?

You would be given a time period where you would only pay the interest on a loan. Then after this time period ended, you would be stuck to pay the actual loan over the remaining time period.

[KNUBB]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aieMbyVv2U4&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

[calgaryballer]

Called my bank today (RBC here in Canada). They advised that as of right now they haven't heard anything for sure, but advised me to contact the credit rating agencies and let them know that I had been a part of the PS3 network and thus could be vulnerable