That’s a lot of “cons.”
As most of you are already aware, the Playstation Network (PSN) is still down since it was taken offline on April 20, 2011 one week earlier. According to an official statement released by Sony (finally!), an investigation revealed that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, in what could be considered a catastrophic data breach, up to 77 million users’ personal information may have been obtained by an “unauthorized person.” This includes name, address, contact, credit card information, and even purchase history and billing address and sub-accounts if made.
Sony is urging all PSN users to review all account transactions and statements as well as to monitor credit card activity and to notify financial institutions. Users should also be aware of any e-mails, telephone calls, and postal mail scams that ask for any sensitive personal information (Sony explains that they do not partake in these activities and to be ensured that any party calling and requesting this information is not calling on behalf of Sony). Any questions and/or concerns should be directed to the phone number provided by Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment at 1-800-345-7669.
Well, now that THAT’S cleared up… brb, canceling my credit card.
via Sony and Sony’s new PSN Outage FAQ
[UPDATE 1: May 4, 2011]
The number of accounts affected by this PSN breach has reached 102 million after Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) disclosed that confidential information for 25 million users have been illegally obtained by hackers. Although not confirmed by Sony, the breach also may have been instigated by illegal downloads on PSN through the dev servers. You can find more info on it here at Reddit.
Editor-in-Chief
Markus Lai
[UPDATE 2: May 5, 2011]
Sony has two lawsuits on it’s plate due to the PSN Breach. There is one from the States and the second one is from Canada. The Canadian lawsuit wants compensation of $1 billion to help affected Canadians to pay for credit monitoring, which is ~$400-500 a year for two years. Roughly calculating, 1 million Canadian PSN accounts times 1000 results in the $1B pricetag.
Also an investigation has found that Sony was using outdated software an no firewall and that’s a big no-no, even for the security on your own personal computer. Sony I am disappoint!
Editor-in-Chief
Markus Lai
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PS3 — It only does offline! XD
In all seriousness this is a pretty deep hole Sony’s got themselves into. From what I’ve heard, some people have speculated that it’s due to people getting into the PSN Store and stealing games through dev networks cause Sony doesn’t verify those accounts on that server apparently I think that this post on Reddit explains it better http://www.reddit.com/comments/gx6o4/im_a_moderator_over_at_psxscenecom_the_real/
Author
It really is amazing for offline gameplay, isn’t it?
I was following this post on Reddit also but will gladly take an official statement from Sony over a reddit post. It is nice to know they’re being proactive in warning their customers about the possibility of identity theft.
Kind of peeved about having to cancel my CC though!
I don’t mind that PSN is down since I do most of my gaming offline anyways. Looking at how Sony is dealing with it, we’re unlikely going to get a clear answer out of them besides that PSN has been breached and personal info including CC’s may be compromised. I’ve heard that other people have had 360 friends poke fun of PSN being down and you “get for what you paid for” even though XBL has gone down in the past before from what I’ve heard. :/
Author
Ah, the winter of 2007/8. Tough times. Fanbois everywhere huddling in corners crying, but Microsoft pulled through with a free game/credit.
I honestly wouldn’t be expecting anything from Sony expect for a generic e-mail apology in a few weeks and not very assuring assurances that they are doing everything they can to strengthen their security. I didn’t pay for the service, but I sure hope Sony pulls through for those who subscribe and pay for PSN+
yea thank god I didnt sign up for psn plus. was considering it but procrastinating on it definitely paid off lol