Sony unsure if PlayStation Network user data was stolen
'External intrusion' probed as outage enters day 5
Sony has yet to determine if customers' personal information and credit card details have been stolen as part of an external intrusion into its system that has left PSN, the PlayStation network, inaccessible for five days.
“Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure,” Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold blogged on Saturday. “Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.”
The day before, Seybold said Sony systems suffered am “external intrusion” that required the PlayStation Network and the related Qriocity services to be taken offline on Wednesday evening.
On Monday, Seybold said Sony had no update or estimate when service might be restored.
What's more, according to PCWorld, members of Sony's public relations team said the company has not yet determined if personal information or payment card data of PlayStation Network users was exposed in the security breach. They vowed to warn users promptly if the company determines such information was stolen in the attack.
The intrusion follows months of pointed criticism by some PlayStation fans over Sony's legal dragnet of hackers who jailbroke the popular game console so it would run apps and games not officially sanctioned by Sony. Critics have argued that Sony's aggressive litigation has targeted hackers for publicly speaking about jailbreaks to hardware they have legally purchased.
Earlier this month, Sony dismissed its suit against George Hotz after the hacker promised to drop all future attempts to unlock the game console and refrain from technical discussions on the topic. Hotz, who goes by the hacker handle GeoHot, remained highly critical of Sony and has called for a global boycott of the company.
It's still unclear who is behind the PlayStation Network attack, which is affecting about 70 million registered users. ®
COMMENTS
I call bullshit on you.
If it's Anonymous hackers bringing down the PSN as a protest, they won't have stolen your CC details.
If it's any old cybercrooks stealing CC details, they aren't doing it because of the retraction of OtherOS.
It's bullshit for you to pretend that one group of people would have both those motives.
Wrong
"You're not getting the service you paid for, but it's not Sony's fault."
Yes it is. They could have fixed the security hole and put the 'old' PSN back up while they were rebuilding a new one instead of taking the whole thing down.
"It's a bunch of whining wannabe pirates, who need to call the waaaambulance because their halfbaked excuses are getting tediously deafening."
Not all (or even most) homebrewers are pirates. The idiotic argument that that's the only reason anyone would want homebrew on a console is what is getting tediously deafening.
"If you genuinely want to do something different and groundbreaking, then I honestly admire that.
Sony didn't make anyone install the update that forced the choice between OtherOS and PSN. But letting both happen at once WOULD have led to my gaming experience getting wrecked for the reasons in my post above, and it had to happen for them to preserve the primary use of the console for the vast, vast majority of users."
Bullshit. Geohotz's original hack only allowed Linux to fully utilize the hardware. It had no affect in the game mode whatsoever. It ONLY affected Linux and didn't pose a piracy threat. As for saying that they didn't force users to take that update, that's like saying the IRS doesn't force you to pay taxes because you can choose to go to jail instead. There's a term for that kind of choice, but it's been a long time since I took philosophy.
"And now a bunch of pathetic losers have potentially got hold of my credit card details because they can't cope with that fact. And that really pisses me of"
Frankly I never trusted PSN with my credit card details to begin with, however I will say this: If this attack is meant to be punitive against Sony then they likely aren't interested in credit card details. If they were after the credit card details then this attack would have happened regardless of what Sony's been doing to homebrewers.
Oh, and for the record, my PS3 isn't jailbroken. I just get sick and tired of Sony pretending that consumer rights don't exist in the face of the phantom threat of piracy. Seriously, how many publishers have quit making PC games because they can't make a prophet or because of cheats in online play?
Wrong on most points
First: it's not about pirating games. As I've said repeatedly the hackers who have the skills to get jailbreaks done initially don't give a damn about pirating games. As for your other points:
1: Yes, it was. Hence GeoHotz's original hack to give it full access to the hardware. That hack posed no real security threat to Sony, but they opened themselves up to hacks that would by forcing people who wanted to run Linux to jailbreak the PS3. Mega dumb move on their part.
2: Dead wrong. It may have been a minuscule percentage, but that minuscule percentage added up to thousands of people. Some of whom would have been upset about losing PSN access, or, more importantly, security updates for their $700 research computer.
3: There are much better and more effective ways of dealing with cheaters than pissing off the homebrew community.
4: Complete bullshit. Most jailbreakers want homebrew games. At the very most maybe half of them want to pirate games. Even if they all wanted to pirate games, as you seem to think, well piracy on PC, Wii, and XBox360 have been widespread for years and they haven't been severely hurt by it. PC in particular. If your argument were valid I would expect developers to have abandoned the PC 10 years ago.
re: Cue the whining
Yes, Linux removal was a small thing, but can you honestly not see the precedent they're setting? That's what the major fuss is about (or where my annoyance is anyway). Just because you don't see it as a feature you mind losing, doesn't mean it's irrelevant.
Although less likely, Sony could decide that BD playback isn't worth the hassle and remove it from the firmware. But that's OK because not everyone uses it for that and you can still play games...
i like my playstation 3
and everyone who is hacking PSN is a pirate and everyone who is apirate is a dirty immigrant and they come here jumping over theborder getting all there handouts 4 free it is the ddisgrace of all time. how this dirty homebrew scumbers can take away ower games. Playstation games 4 playstation players that is my motto. I am going to take Playstation back and all those homebrewers and peedophiles cant stop me because i have theballs to stand up 4 my rights unlike those scumbers pirating their stolen handouts it makes me sick. they dont even speak the language and they think they can just come here with NO edukation and take games from ower children some of them have cancer how could you do that toa sick child U SCUMBAG.
