It's on all of the news sites now, CNN, Fox, Cbs, MSNbc, even the Wall Street Journal. This is going to hurt Sony in the markets as well their as stock fell slightly today but several sites now have the stock tagged as a sell. Any negative press lately is usually followed by a stock drop. It's still too early to tell what is going to happen in the long run, but I am still eagerly awaiting the day when the PSN is restored. I can only do so much single player gaming, I miss my friends on home.
I sure haven't received any emails/notifications regarding the possibility that my personal data may have been compromised. Sony's delay in notifying us of these potential information compromises has me both a bit worried & ticked off. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but Paula (my wife) & I have already been the victims of identity theft. It is not an experience we wish to repeat.Ever. For those of you lucky enough to have avoided getting hit by identity theft, here's a short look at our nightmare. Although chances are slim that any of us will have any problems here, it's still better to be aware of what could happen in the worst of situations. We certainly would never wish this on (most) anyone… ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Our experience with identity theft occurred back in May 2009, when a woman stole the outgoing mail from several mailboxes along our street… the same day we placed in a bundle of paid-for bills :cursing:. It was an incredible nightmare to deal with, and definitely not the sort of situation I wish to have a repeat of. Luckily, we discovered the mail theft fairly quickly (within an hour or so). We immediately notified the postal inspector, our bank, credit card companies, and every other company we'd sent payments out to that day, warning them of the theft and our worries about fraud/identity theft. Since our checks were stolen, notifying our bank first and protecting our accounts was of the utmost importance. We went in that same day to fill out all the paperwork required to legally close our existing accounts and immediately have all funds moved into brand-new uncompromised accounts. Theoretically, that should have ended the potential identity theft issues right then and there… but some major damage was still done due to some "confusion" (i.e. major screw-up) by the bank. With one of my accounts — my main checking account — the bank properly opened a new account, yet neglected to transfer the funds over and close out the original account. You can imagine my surprise when I went online to balance my checkbook about a week later, and discovered my new account was empty, and my old account had been almost completely cleaned out by someone using obviously forged checks (I had 24¢ left out of nearly $8000 :cursing. Yeah… This female identity thief had gone on a massive shopping spree after creating new forged checks using bits of real information from several different people — someone's name; someone else's address (in my case a local Quinceañera photography studio); another person's drivers' license number; and bank routing/account information coding (that numbered strip at the bottom of all checks) using information stolen off my own checks. Just my luck… just friggin' great. $3000+ at Office Depot, $2000+ at Lohman's, $1500+ at Macy's, $800+ at Vallajarta Supermarket, and more… (In all, ~$15,000 in checks were written; glad I didn't have that much money in that account.) So what happened? Seems some genius at the bank felt it better to hold off doing the actual transfer of funds into my new account until my monthly social security deposit was wired in the following week — completely in violation of all sorts of regulations, as that account was legally closed. Thankfully, all my losses were due to obvious bank error, so my money was returned to me in full within a couple days… but it was still quite a stressful situation. In addition to filing reports with the police and the bank's Fraud Department, the bank also had to bring in Federal fraud investigators due to the amount stolen (over $1000 total). Whew! Money returned, accounts safe… problem over. Right? Right…? Though I was completely cleared of any wrongdoing, I soon discovered another problem. When the bank reversed payment on all the bogus checks, several stores were now out thousands of dollars… and a few decided to bypass reimbursement through their insurance companies, instead attempting to force repayment through other means. In this instance, they provided copies of the fake checks & my info from the Federal fraud reports to Certigy — one of the biggest (and most problematic) check authorization and check collection services in North America (look them up for some truly horrible stories). Certigy subsequently denied all checks written by me at retail, and repeatedly bombarded me with repayment demands & legal threats for all those "bad checks" I never wrote. The bank manager contacted Certigy's Fraud Department, explained the situation, and provided them with all the police & fraud reports — yet while their Fraud Dept. said I would be immediately cleared, other departments there just kept it going. It took nearly nine months to completely clear my name with Certigy so I could actually write checks again at retail. Oh, and Certigy also attempted to destroy my credit with the three standard agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian), but they thankfully DID immediately & properly acknowledge the police & federal fraud reports. ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ Thankfully I haven't had any problems with Certigy since. I'm even more grateful that Paula escaped this situation somewhat unscathed — while none of her personal accounts, nor our joint accounts, were affected, the stress of dealing with this was incredible and nearly intolerable. It was especially difficult for me, considering the debilitating medical issues I already deal with on an everyday basis. And that's the short version of our encounter with identity theft, and what it's like to deal with it. (Really, that IS the short cut.) While it's highly unlikely any of us here will suffer through any Sony-related identity theft — or such a series of subsequent errors as we experienced — it can happen. So until this event blows over completely, stay vigilant on your own behalf. Be aware of your accounts and be on the lookout for possible fraud, such as high or unauthorized charges. Hopefully this mess will be over with soon and we can all go back to playing games & meeting online as we normally do. At the same time, I personally hope Sony takes however long they need for their rebuild and investigation. I'd prefer they fix things properly for once, so this never has a chance to reoccur…
Sarcastic Gamer Forums - View Single Post - Gloom, Doom and Security Goes Boom - PS3 Hackage Megathread <--- YOU GUYS SHOULD READ THIS
hey tony, i kinda think we all agree about the bulk of what that guy is saying. Shutting the system down was what had to be done. And I don't see anyone disputing that. But I think must people believe Sony should have told us that are info was hacked a few days ago. I think they need to explain WHEN they realized that our private info was compromised. And When they realized our credit cards information was compromised. It's the 26th now. The hacking began around the 17th or so. That's a long time to not inform us that they had a problem.
I remember someone once tried to use my parents credit card to buy plane tickets to Europe. That wasn't really bright since they were held at the purchase counter lol. Also for once I'm glad my credit limit isn't anywhere near theirs.
We all know what this means! The end of SONY and PSN! It's time we all Face it! What we had is GONE! and there's no way to fix it now. The Downfall is coming Stock will Continue to Fall! This is Truly the END!
I agree firefly. They should have told this since day 1 so no one could speculate about wtf happened to the PSN.
Wow. I came back from a weekend trip to read all this content. I don't know what to think because Sony says they confirmed that account information was compromised but nothing about confirming anything being stolen. That is what I have read so far anyway. What a time to make my first post here. Nor I have I received any email about my information being effected either. I haven't read any of the mass media reports, from CNN, CBS, etc., yet so I hope that Sony's reputation doesn't get too damaged. I may not agree on their pricing strategies and have read personal accounts of how other users got "cheated" of out their money but Sony's name does not deserve to be dragged through the mud.
Hey, tony d. I'm not quite sure what to make of that article by Rothbart (after all, it IS posted on the Sarcastic Gamer forums), but as a security specialist, Roth claims that"By data breach standards, what Sony has done here is the absolute text book implementation of what to do correctly". He also claims that since"They didn't try to analyze it themselves but instead brought in experts," Presumably that means Sony was advised to remain silent on the possible theft of user database info while the forensic investigation was being conducted to see what was compromised. Still, I find it difficult to balance out our need to know when and whether our personal information was stolen, versus keeping us totally in the dark while the full scale of the breech was assessed. Timely warning about compromised personal data is not just a matter of courtesy, it's critical to user confidence. If the data thief had been anything like the dame in Baron Brain's situation, then that six day window may well have been a free ticket to a no-holds-barred spending spree with stolen credit. Ugh. I'm really uncomfortable with this, it's a tough call. I'd like to see how Senator Blumenthal would have chosen to word a cautionary letter to PSN users explaining the whole situation, himself.
Well had a night to sleep/dwell on all this situation ,first thing I did was contact my bank to cancel debit card ,from now on I'll be using just psn cards ,I got the email to my US acc from SCEA ,none for my EU account where I actually live (typical) :blink: ,guess we can only but wait for psn to come back online so we can changed PW's ,I am not missing online gaming but am missing my Home ,hope none of us have had anything stolen and the "may have been" from the sony statement makes me think they are not sure either ,lets hope for a better more secure network next time :whistling1: Wow this is my 4th post here in a day after being a memember since 2009 ,I just had nothing to say i guess LOL
Even Once the PlayStation Network Is Back, This Thing Is Far from Over - Techland - TIME.com AND Xbox Live Gets “Service Alert” Warning | Gaming News and Opinion at TheSixthAxis.com <--- LOL
Looks like even State Senate and ICO from Europe is doing some grillin' against SONY..Oh the fiasco..LOL.. PSN Fiasco Prompts Connecticut Senator to Demand Answers ICO confirms it will quiz Sony over PSN News - PlayStation 3 - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
What SONY stated yesterday was a stab in the back of a lot of SONY lovers. Our personal informations regarding PSN may have been stolen? Why did SONY waited 6 days to inform us of that? Im really worried about my e-mail and my PSN account (password, login and PSN ID)
I think when user get into their Dolphy apt., they gonna see a big can of dolphy meat floating in the middle of the apt and shows R.I.P. and the date on it..hee hee..jk ~__^
