Current PSN outage: Don't abuse or we lose this thread.

  • Thread starter BWX
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I hope I can keep track of this situation here. It took a lot of searching to find this thread though.

I got an email from Sony today and GTPlanet is the only place I can think to get personal comment from people re PSN as it is the only game I play.

I hope it will become clearer in the coming days whether those of us who have received an email already have been selected as we are at risk or whether it's just a case of them slowly trickling out to the millions of account holders. I hope to read posts from others regarding this. I'm not worried re credit cards as the one I'd used is now out of date anyway even if the encryption is a myth.

Thanks to everyone on here for being helpful to eachother.


But also

Guys, I think you all need to chill, relax and don't worry. The odds of YOUR account being compromised is probably quite low.


This doesn't make me feel better, actually it makes me furious(Not at you NissanSkylineN1 it's not your fault at all :) ) that someone would go to the effort of getting the song, finding a picture of Bob Marley, making the video then posting on Youtube...WHEN IT"S BY BOBBY MCFERRIN!!!!!
:) I do feel better now
 
When the system comes back online, and you create you new ID, can your saved game information be transferred to it? I mean you will have to create a new password and ID you know.
Your ID will be the same and everything friends list etc will be EXACTLY as you left it before the outage.
 
I hope it will become clearer in the coming days whether those of us who have received an email already have been selected as we are at risk or whether it's just a case of them slowly trickling out to the millions of account holders.

All 77 Million people with PSN accounts will be getting the email. They're just slowly getting to people, but they said that everyone should have them by tomorrow.
 
I saw the UK government is looking into whether any of the CC data was stored in the UK, if so Sony's up for a 500,000 pound fine.
That would be the same government's civil service that lost the personal data of 37 million people in one year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/1574687/Governments-record-year-of-data-loss.html



I too am disturbed by the lack of contact from Sony. I most recently made a purchase when that First Strike map pack came out for COD. That was in February or March. I am not really concerned about the cc being stolen, but the lack of public relations is reason for concern. This outage and lack of reaction by Sony is definitely going to have a major impact on the next console I purchase. This is enough of a f-up to destroy the Playstation brand.

Everyone is being e-mailed (more on this in a moment) and details have gone out to the press on a regular basis. This is unlikely to destroy the Playstation brand, damage it yes, but destroy it, no.

Oh and in future if you must swear, either let the swear filter censor the whole word or use the 🤬 smile. Don't self censor as it doesn't make the word any harder to ID.


I hope it will become clearer in the coming days whether those of us who have received an email already have been selected as we are at risk or whether it's just a case of them slowly trickling out to the millions of account holders.
The company I work for provides software than allows e-mail campaigns to be run directly from it and as such I know full well what would happen if a mail out this large was not done in phases.

You try and shove that many mails out in one hit and the server running it will fall over fairly quickly, that would just be from the volume, the number of 'e-mail undeliverable' messages coming back due to duff e-mail address' would make that situation even worse.



I hope to read posts from others regarding this. I'm not worried re credit cards as the one I'd used is now out of date anyway even if the encryption is a myth.
Why would it be a myth?

Keep in mind that Sony only said CC data may have been obtained, people then read into that what they wanted, and human nature being what it is they went for the worst.


Scaff
 
That would be the same government's civil service that lost the personal data of 37 million people in one year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/1574687/Governments-record-year-of-data-loss.html








Scaff


lol. I'd assume the very same government, though I'm sure you're aware government is a very big and inefficient organization, though that's an argument for a different day. I'm not from the UK, so I'm not sure which department lost people's personal data, suffice to say it's probably a different department investigating Sony.

As it now turns out, Sony did keep peoples CC details secure, at least that's the impression I'm getting. If Sony had allowed people's CC details to be kept in an insecure environment, I'm sure you would agree with me that Sony would deserve punishment. Regardless of government fines, the damage Sony has done to it's own brand far exceeds any fine government can impose.

This consumer's far from satisfied, I don't feel like I'm in the minority.
 
lol. I'd assume the very same government, though I'm sure you're aware government is a very big and inefficient organization, though that's an argument for a different day. I'm not from the UK, so I'm not sure which department lost people's personal data, suffice to say it's probably a different department investigating Sony.
Pretty much every department in government (and you can also apply this to just about any government) has lost data at one time or another.

The ICO is also widely viewed as ineffective and from its own figures has more issue with data loss from government than the private sector.
http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2045030/ico-slammed-protection-enforcement-failures

Its also impossible to know if the ICO has ever lost data as organisations rarely police themselves well, but given the track record of government bodies I would not bet against it.


As it now turns out, Sony did keep peoples CC details secure, at least that's the impression I'm getting. If Sony had allowed people's CC details to be kept in an insecure environment, I'm sure you would agree with me that Sony would deserve punishment. Regardless of government fines, the damage Sony has done to it's own brand far exceeds any fine government can impose.
Yes the data should (and it would appear was) be secure.

However the public is very quick to jump on bandwagons and just as quick to forget.

Two cases in point:

Amazon lose CC data and it gets used fraudulently:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/03/07/amazon_despite_denials_was_warned/ (oh and they point blank denied it as well).

Shopto.net (large UK on-line retailer) have been hacked numerous times and CC data used - http://conceptualgamer.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/shoptonet-great-deals-******-security/


Lots more here - http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/100407-web-site-vulnerabilities.html (including Paypal and the US and Australian gov).

To my knowledge Amazon, ShopTo, Paypal, and the US & Australian government all survived these attacks quite well, despite in many cases actually having the stolen CC data used.


This consumer's far from satisfied, I don't feel like I'm in the minority.
I would be willing to bet that should you still feel this way in six months you most certainly will be.


Scaff
 
I'm in complete agreement with you Scaff, especially on the inefficiency of government point, and the fact, that in reality, no system which is connected to the internet can ever be 100% secure. There will always be hackers out there trying to break the security of Government, Banks, Major Corporations, and often successfully.

Internet fraud is a billion dollar industry for organized crime groups, and to cite your Amazon & Paypal examples, the criminals are on the hunt for peoples CC details specifically. I'm not sure that this intrusion into PSN is of that nature. Seems to me PSN was an easy target, the hackers were after a way to play pirated games, more than steal peoples CC information.

In six months most people will have forgotten this incident no doubt, I'd give it six days after PSN's back up till they've forgotten. Personally I think Sony's still a great company, and will continue using PSN for a long time to come, my only caveat is no more CC for me. I will use prepaid PSN cards from now on.
 
There will always be hackers out there trying to break the security of Government, Banks, Major Corporations, and often successfully.
If I recall correctly, an AU federal government website, or two, were hacked in the last 18 months alone, let alone the number of other ones across the globe so yes, it will always happen. It is just that this one is so large in publicity that it takes teh forefront and people forget the rest.
In six months most people will have forgotten this incident no doubt, I'd give it six days after PSN's back up till they've forgotten.

I don't think this will be the case if you mean PS3 owners (if you meant entire populations, I retract). They will have put it to the back of their minds and moved on, as they should, but I doubt that it will be forgotten. TBH, I am already starting to put it into my 'brain-bank'.

You can already get a lot of peoples personal information from sites such as facebook, the exact same information the 'hackers' obtained from the PSN breach. The thing to take most from that ars technica article is that if there is something out there to blame CC fraud on other than your own personal security slips, then it will be done.
 
Guys, just a question, i believe many of you is sick of earing this, but i kept not understanding what they say about the day that PSN is getting back.
So they recently said that some services were going to be available from "yesterday within a week" so when is that "yesterday" that they were referring do you know?
 
Guys, just a question, i believe many of you is sick of earing this, but i kept not understanding what they say about the day that PSN is getting back.
So they recently said that some services were going to be available from "yesterday within a week" so when is that "yesterday" that they were referring do you know?

My interpretation is that PSN will be back on or around the 4th May.
 
In six months most people will have forgotten this incident no doubt, I'd give it six days after PSN's back up till they've forgotten. Personally I think Sony's still a great company, and will continue using PSN for a long time to come, my only caveat is no more CC for me. I will use prepaid PSN cards from now on.
I will keep using CC, just not my current CC, as I have cancelled it, just in case. 5 business day until I have the new one, so no big issue for me. Besides that, PSN is probably one of the safest places to store your CC info now. ;)
 
I have noticed on the TV in the last couple of days that XBox has seemed to have a lot more advert saturation, both on cable TV and free-to-air. Is it coincidence or a smartly timed strategy based upon teh past week?

I am not noticing it more just because of the PSN outage; I saw a PS3 advert not too long ago, but it just seems MS/XBox is pushing harder on ad spending atm and the timing is ironic.
 
I have noticed on the TV in the last couple of days that XBox has seemed to have a lot more advert saturation, both on cable TV and free-to-air. Is it coincidence or a smartly timed strategy based upon teh past week?

I am not noticing it more just because of the PSN outage; I saw a PS3 advert not too long ago, but it just seems MS/XBox is pushing harder on ad spending atm and the timing is ironic.

Unlikely to be a coincidence. It's a commercial reality. Microsoft would be foolish not to capitalize on Sony's misfortune. That's how business works.
 
Unlikely to be a coincidence. It's a commercial reality. Microsoft would be foolish not to capitalize on Sony's misfortune. That's how business works.
I just didn't think it would be possible to stitch up an ad campaign network deal in that short a time, especially seeing as we just had a 5 day long weekend.

They must have been spamming the TV networks the moment they could with tons of mony to have it happen that fast :confused:
 
Odd. I've seen more PS3 ads.

So have I. I think that is a PR move to attempt to repair and get new customers. Sony knows it will lose some customers. They also are strongly aware that this is turning into a PR nightmare (evidence from their Blog alone). It is really a move to protect what market share they have currently and to keep their name in the headlines for other reasons than a major hack attack.

According to the blog, it looks like another week of downtime (at least). Some people are saying weeks, since Sony still hasn't really identified the scope of the problem yet (the depth of the breach).
 
When the PSN comes back online,will you have to create a new ID?

Your ID will be the same and everything friends list etc will be EXACTLY as you left it before the outage.

And what do you base this on? It would seem that in order to prevent the hackers from stealing your account when the service is turned back on, this will not be the case. As far as using an e-mail to reset your password, that won't work because the hackers might have access to your e-mail and I'm sure some people like myself do not even have the same ISP/e-mail as was used to set up the PSN account in the first place. There is indeed a good chance that everything will have to be reset. Based on what you ask?
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/712194/when-the-playstation-network-returns-will-your-trophies-return-too/

That would imply a start from scratch. :scared:
 
When the PSN comes back online,will you have to create a new ID?



And what do you base this on? It would seem that in order to prevent the hackers from stealing your account when the service is turned back on, this will not be the case. As far as using an e-mail to reset your password, that won't work because the hackers might have access to your e-mail and I'm sure some people like myself do not even have the same ISP/e-mail as was used to set up the PSN account in the first place. There is indeed a good chance that everything will have to be reset. Based on what you ask?
http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/712194/when-the-playstation-network-returns-will-your-trophies-return-too/

That would imply a start from scratch. :scared:

Only thing you can do is once the PSN is up is to change password and security question, Thats about all you can do.

On a separate thing, I read somewhere on this topic that some place got hacked and took what 3.5 or 1.5 million accounts in 3 days I just wonder how they classify the accounts by PSN ID, email, username, creation date etc?
 
All based on speculation. I doubt a hacker would really be caring about each and every individual account and how many trophies they have to bother obtaining them once the system is back up. If Sony close the holes in their network that allowed the intrusion to start with, as they are obvioulsy working to during this downtime, they would be able to identify and restore any accounts hacked post-reboot once notified, let alone stop any doubleup intrusion while you redo your login p/w update.

I would also think that your p/w reset would require authentication from an email address. If you have yet to change the p/w to your email, maybe now is the time to do so, whilst redesigning your tin foil hat.
 
I'm just glad I never gave any real information for my PSN account. Well, saide from some secondary email address which i couldn't care less about.
I'd be more worried about it if it was XBL, as they're having my credit card information and stuff.
 
Some of you are saying that this complete fiasco is the fault of the hackers and Sony is doing everything they can to make it right. That is a very niave attitude and I attribute it to the very young age of most of the members here.

It's true that this would have never come to light without the hackers; it's also true that Sony showed absolutely no regard for their customers. They had an almost completely open system and what security they did employ was old technology and would barely slow down even a noob hacker. If you believe that the credit card information was encrypted then you are fooling yourself. Read some of the hackers blogs and you will see just how easy this was for them, and exactly how and what they found; almost nothing was encrypted, including credit card information with the exception of the 3 digit security code. Everything else was in plain text.

Sony should be held criminally liable for this; not to mention what the hackers found out about what information about it's users was being collected by Sony every time they use PSN.

Sure, it's the hackers "fault"; but what Sony did was analogous to putting a $100 bill on a public sidewalk and then crying when someone picked it up. It was bound to happen.
 
Sure, it's the hackers "fault"; but what Sony did was analogous to putting a $100 bill on a public sidewalk and then crying when someone picked it up. It was bound to happen.

Or a woman dressing up attractively and walking home by herself at night, eh?
 
Or a woman dressing up attractively and walking home by herself at night, eh?

You're right, a crime is a crime, no matter how easy it was to commit it (or what the incentive was).
Still, I think it's a valid point that Sony should be held responsible for being careless with their users' data.
 
Sorry if this has been posted but I don't have time to look, sorry. But here is an email I received from Sony.


"PlayStation(R)Network

===================================

Valued PlayStation(R)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 rebuilding 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 website 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"
 
Some of you are saying that this complete fiasco is the fault of the hackers and Sony is doing everything they can to make it right. That is a very niave attitude and I attribute it to the very young age of most of the members here.

It's true that this would have never come to light without the hackers; it's also true that Sony showed absolutely no regard for their customers. They had an almost completely open system and what security they did employ was old technology and would barely slow down even a noob hacker. If you believe that the credit card information was encrypted then you are fooling yourself. Read some of the hackers blogs and you will see just how easy this was for them, and exactly how and what they found; almost nothing was encrypted, including credit card information with the exception of the 3 digit security code. Everything else was in plain text.

Sony should be held criminally liable for this; not to mention what the hackers found out about what information about it's users was being collected by Sony every time they use PSN.

Sure, it's the hackers "fault"; but what Sony did was analogous to putting a $100 bill on a public sidewalk and then crying when someone picked it up. It was bound to happen.

I believe you refer to the chat log lying around. The only problem is, that was a guy sniffing the ssl connection from his PS3 to PSN. What this means is, he found out that when your PS3 talks to the PSN, it relies entirely on the ssl connection to keep the information safe. That is a noobish mistake indeed, but it doesn't mean the CC information stored in PSN servers is unencrypted. I do have my doubts since if they made such a rookie mistake while transferring the data, it makes you wonder if they made a comparable mistake while storing it.

On another note, I do agree with you about the general response people have around here being odd. They are willing to cut sony some serious slack for no apparent reason. I believe it has a lot to do with most people thinking sony's servers were Fort Knox, and the hackers were the most skilled infiltration team ever heard of, able to penetrate any server. When in fact, from the info we have around, it looks a lot more like sony stored all the info in a locked drawer, and scratched their heads in awe when they found out it was unlocked.

Or a woman dressing up attractively and walking home by herself at night, eh?

More like you have a hot wife that does this regularly, so you contract a security escort company to keep her safe. Then she get's raped, and you find out that all the security they offered was someone watching your house entrance to check if she arrived safely.
 
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Sony has known about thier severe lack of security since before they took away secondary OS, that's why they took away the feature for those wanting to use the psn.

I wonder what other steps they took inbetween that patch and when they shut the psn down.
 
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