PSN Service Outage

@Sony Doesn’t Know Yet If Your Credit Card Number Was StolenSony has not yet determined if the personal information or credit card numbers of users on the still-offline Playstation Network have been stolen, according to a Sony spokesman.
Sony Computer Entertainment is conducting “thorough investigation” into the outage, Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, told PC World.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesman Patrick Seybold reiterated Fukuoka’s statement, confirming that Sony is still looking into whether credit card or other personal information were taken during the “external intrusion.”
Both declined to provide more information about the intrusion that led the company to take the global Playstation Network down last week.

 

For those that have their credit card information with Sony (like me), it is best practice to assume the worst and that hackers grabbed CC info, until verification of what happened by Sony. Keep a watchful eye on your accounts to make sure no abnormal charges show up on it.

It won't help me now, but I will be pulling my CC information off of their services so if the unfortunate does happen again (which probably will again with Sony), I should be safe. Unless of course they still keep the CC info in their database even after you remove it.

I would also change your passwords when PSN is back up as added precaution.

 

I posted this idea to get a tiny compensation from Sony. Maybe if we all support it, we will get a little something back?
Home reward to ease the frustration a... | PlayStation® Community Forums

 

It would be great, but I serously doubt it. Although, a few years back my Blue-ray player in my PS3 died after the warranty expired. I called and complained. While I still had to pay the 150 to get it replaced, Sony threw in two free PS3 games of my choice. Guess it can pay to be a (loyal) squeaky wheel sometimes.

 

If PSN is down for maintenance, how the hell are people posting on the main site????? I tried to post a comment and since it runs on PSN I couldn't even log in... How does that work?

 

apparently, some people never logged out

 

Just got off the phone with customer service, and they finally gave me a straight answer about cc info: They said for 100% sure nothing of that sort had been compromised. I am glad they finally answered this for me, and will be a bit more relaxed about this outage from now on .

 

Great! Our CC accounts and passwords are safe and sound! ^^

 

Also just found this: Details Emerge About PlayStation Network Hack
It is a bit more info on what happened with the hack. Not helpful in assessing when PSN will be back up, but interesting none the less.

 

I read on two other forums some people are saying that since PSN is free that no one is entitled to any compensation. I however don't agree, games like DC universe Free Realms or other games that requires PSN to access online play & the people that paid $60 for those games & pay a fee just to play it & Now they can't use on a working PS3 deserve that week of down time back. Call me crazy but i've always worried about crap like this when making a choice on buying PSN network or XBOXLive required games.

 

And don't forget that there are games within Home itself that people pay to play (I play Salt Shooter for instance, and had to pay for it. Where is the free in that?). I am on the fence though about the whole compensation thing. I do know that if I order a hamburger I want to eat it that same day at least, not almost a week after or longer. That being said, I can see how people would expect something over being put out in such a manner (figuratively and literally).

 

I think the end of this is Sony starts to charge us for the PSN services, and that sux. I f i want to pay to play online, i btter be boutgh a xsux 360 toaster console instead of my ps3 console.

 

I found the following info:


In-Game - Gamers worried about credit cards as PlayStation outage continues

It's been five days and as a legion of frustrated PlayStation 3 owners can tell you, Sony's online PlayStation Network is still offline.

Sony on Friday released an official statement explaining that the outage to its PlayStation Network – which began last Wednesday evening April 20 – was caused by what appears to be a hacking intrusion.

Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, told PC World the company is trying to determine if personal information or credit card numbers of users have been compromised. He said the company will promptly inform users if they discover that is the case.

The PlayStation Network allows PS3 owners to play games together online as well as download games, movies and music to their home console.
On Monday, Patrick Syebold, head of Sony of America's corporate communications, sent a message to frustrated customers via the official PlayStation blog, apologizing for the continued outage and explaining that the company still could not say when the service would go back on line:

I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.
As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we’re working to get them back online quickly. We’ll keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience.
​

Additionally, game site Kotaku contacted the FBI and has confirmed that there have been no arrests made in the outage despite rumors that 40 arrest warrants had been issued.
The hacker collective Anonymous has both been blamed by gamers for the outage while various factions of the group have also denied responsibility for the outage.
In a recent post on their official news site, they insisted: "For once, it wasn't us."

While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves AnonOps was not related to this incident and takes no responsiblity for it. A more likely explination is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact the outage is accutally an internal problem with the companies servers.
​

That claim has been greeted with some skepticism. After all the group did admit to attacking and taking down the PlayStation network as well as several Sony PlayStation websites in March as a response to the company's lawsuit against hacker George "GeoHot" Hotz.

Interestingly, a visit to Anonymous' own website on Monday revealed that it was offline for a time, though it eventually went back up.
Who is responsible for the PlayStation Network attack and why it's taking so long to repair remains a mystery. Though Seybold did reveal that Sony itself took the PlayStation network offline in a post to the PlayStation blog:

An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.
​

Reaction from PlayStation 3 owners to the outage has been mixed. While many PlayStation owners have been frustrated by their inability to play games such as the newly launched "Mortal Kombat" and "Portal 2" online together thanks to the outage, many have also been supportive of Sony.

"Awesome. Keep up the good work. We are grateful for your efforts," wrote one gamer in response to Seybold's morning post.

"Boy I sure am glad I paid $50 for a membership I cant use, and pay $15 a month for a game I cant play," wrote another. "I was fine with a day or two, but we are hitting on day 5."

But the prevailing sentiment seemed to be summed up in this response to Seybold's Monday note to gamers:

"Thanks for the update, but i believe what everyone wants to know is whether credit card info and the money already in our accounts was compromised at any point."

 

Posted in the chatlog:

Rumor: 'Rebug' custom firmware enabled 'free' PSN downloads, forced Sony's network shutdown

[25-04, 18:20] (by) Seraphina Arietta: Joystiq

Thanks Sera. This is the first rumor that makes (a little bit) of sense.

RE-EDIT: Sorry, I guess we3jesters posted about this issue with another link. I'm a lttle behind on all this. ;D

 

The entire IT community around the world are looking at SONY with absolute amazement. No corporation has ever been this incompetent before with their on-line services. The common belief is that SONY shut down their servers and then sent their employees home for the holiday. Reality is a rebuilding of any network has never taken this long. Upper management better be ready to commit seppuku. After this completely-insane screw up on their part.

Remember folks this is not a free service. You have to buy some sort of ticket to get in with the exception of Home...

 

Does it take 6,7,8 days to patch firmware? No it doesn't. Does this warrant what they are doing? NO. Could they have just shut down their store and worked on a patch? YES.

This is just outrageous if true...

Full article;

 

The most dumb founding thing is they are a publicly traded company. I as a share holder demand an answer. The biggest joke is they just reported good profits of almost a billion dollars. In the last year with a strong quarterly profit. Then they go and do this? What if they had to close the store to work on a patch. Would have that killed them no. But obviously they didn't like that idea and instead put their on-line services on fire. Essentially screwing their entire customer base. This is only true if in fact what kane and I posted before is true....