PSN Down

[Mr Pwnage]

Quite frankly I don't feel sorry for them at all. As a matter of fact, they kind of deserve this out of making a fool out of themselves with George Hotz. I mean hell, Apple knows that iPods get jail broken, they surely lose money over it, but they don't try to ruin somebodys life. And that said, I hate Apple....



While basically all my gaming is done on the PC anyways, I own an Xbox and not a PS3 b/c I foresaw issues with Sony years ago. Everything I have ever bought from them is an unreliable piece of shit, while my Microsoft products have had little to know issues. Sorry to you PS3 owners...but the time has come to ditch what was a shitty company to begin with. :/

[stick d00d]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/27/qa-1-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/
Some pretty important FAQ's answered, would recommend PS3 owners to read 'em if you haven't yet...

[Chaos]

Oooooh Sony....will you ever stop getting kicked in the teeth?

[CherryPie]

Did they know what they were getting into with removing a heavily used feature in a firmware update?
Probably not. Props to Anonymous or whoever did that for showing Sony, that they are doing it wrong.

[tehrozzy]

I agree Cherry.

Heh, my friend today (he has a ps3) said something about it and XBL, so I told him "You get what you pay for. In your case shit-all."

[ARTgames]

Add PlayStation_Network@playstation-email.com to your address book

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

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

[CherryPie]

Add PlayStation_Network@playstation-email.com to your address book

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

PlayStation(R)Network

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

Valued PlayStation(R)Network/Qriocity Customer:

We don't know what's happening, all we can assure is, that all your data including your credit card number and billing adress has been obtained by minors. The hackers will be found and eliminated!

Over & Out,
Kevin Butler aka. Big Boss of Sony, yo.

fixed. (at least that is what I am reading between the lines)

[Scotty]

Merely speculation at this point, and will continue to be nothing more than speculation

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/ars-readers-report-credit-card-fraud-blame-sony.ars

EDIT:  Somewhat derailing, I'm well aware, but from a computer science perspective, what dumbfounds me the most is that it took this long to have such a huge batch of security flaws be exposed.  The two major ones that come to mind is that obviously there was a hole in their network that allowed the crackers to expose all the user information, but even more so incriminating on behalf of Sony was their lack for generating hashes from the passwords of all 77 million customers.  Who on earth still stores passwords in plain text?  If there is a flaw in the system that allows outside users to gain information, the only thing worse than exposing plain text passwords is full credit card credentials (including the 3 digit security code which Sony claims they've averted having exposed).  I ran this by my co-worker, and we both agreed that we can't think of one reason that you would ever want to store passwords in plain text without using one way encryption.  The surprising thing is, even though that is considered security 101, there's still a lot of service providers that do just that, a few of which I could list off the top of my head, some huge, some small.  Have you ever clicked on a "forgot your password" link only to have them expose your password to you instead of having you reset it?  Every time I see that I cringe and question whether or not I really need that service, despite my habit to use unique passwords for every different service.

Bad Sony, bad bad Sony.  Go sit in your room and don't come out until you realize how big of idiots you really are.  This year is definitely one they will remember for many years to come.

[Mr Pwnage]

Merely speculation at this point, and will continue to be nothing more than speculation

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/ars-readers-report-credit-card-fraud-blame-sony.ars

EDIT:  Somewhat derailing, I'm well aware, but from a computer science perspective, what dumbfounds me the most is that it took this long to have such a huge batch of security flaws be exposed.  The two major ones that come to mind is that obviously there was a hole in their network that allowed the crackers to expose all the user information, but even more so incriminating on behalf of Sony was their lack for generating hashes from the passwords of all 77 million customers.  Who on earth still stores passwords in plain text?  If there is a flaw in the system that allows outside users to gain information, the only thing worse than exposing plain text passwords is full credit card credentials (including the 3 digit security code which Sony claims they've averted having exposed).  I ran this by my co-worker, and we both agreed that we can't think of one reason that you would ever want to store passwords in plain text without using one way encryption.  The surprising thing is, even though that is considered security 101, there's still a lot of service providers that do just that, a few of which I could list off the top of my head, some huge, some small.  Have you ever clicked on a "forgot your password" link only to have them expose your password to you instead of having you reset it?  Every time I see that I cringe and question whether or not I really need that service, despite my habit to use unique passwords for every different service.

Bad Sony, bad bad Sony.  Go sit in your room and don't come out until you realize how big of idiots you really are.  This year is definitely one they will remember for many years to come.

Haha, my thoughts exactly. I found it rather unbelievable when I found out the password were in plain text. Encryption is so essential nowadays it should simply be a law/standard that must be achieved. Especially when you have retards like Sony with hoards of valuable data. This is nothing short of shameful.

[Scotty]

Further discussion of this at the office went to pure comedy gold considering how animated I get when I start doing my imitations.  One thing that I imagine happened, and is likely what they mean by "redoing it" is they are probably in the midst of hashing out all 77 Million passwords.  They claim they've brought in an external security firm's assistance, and I would have loved to have seen the look on the security folk's faces when they saw that Sony had 77 million plain text passwords.

EDIT: Huzzah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwn4R_GexLM **Language Warning**

[LeGuy]

This is entirely speculation, but do any of you suppose that maybe PSN's linkup with Steam could have had anything to do with this?

[Meiun]

Wait, am I missing something? Where are you getting this info about them storing plain text passwords as opposed to hashes?

[Mr Pwnage]

This is entirely speculation, but do any of you suppose that maybe PSN's linkup with Steam could have had anything to do with this?

I was curious about what it meant when PSN could link up with steam. I had never heard of that. Thing is, I love steam...and they continue to pump out good security features like the newly implemented steam guard. I am curious though if you could explain it, how exactly was PSN linked with steam? If you bought a game for PS3 can you play it on your computer too?

[tehrozzy]

This is entirely speculation, but do any of you suppose that maybe PSN's linkup with Steam could have had anything to do with this?

I was curious about what it meant when PSN could link up with steam. I had never heard of that. Thing is, I love steam...and they continue to pump out good security features like the newly implemented steam guard. I am curious though if you could explain it, how exactly was PSN linked with steam? If you bought a game for PS3 can you play it on your computer too?

Pretty much. I know that at least Portal 2 on PS3 could be linked to your steam account, so you got a free PC copy to download as well.

[CherryPie]

This is entirely speculation, but do any of you suppose that maybe PSN's linkup with Steam could have had anything to do with this?

I was curious about what it meant when PSN could link up with steam. I had never heard of that. Thing is, I love steam...and they continue to pump out good security features like the newly implemented steam guard. I am curious though if you could explain it, how exactly was PSN linked with steam? If you bought a game for PS3 can you play it on your computer too?

Pretty much. I know that at least Portal 2 on PS3 could be linked to your steam account, so you got a free PC copy to download as well.

Portal 2 was actually the first and only game, having that feature.