The New Title of the Worst Games Console of All Time

...By a factor of about 10,000,000.

Sure, it only took them 7 days to tell anyone it actually happened.

Sony has warned users of its PlayStation Network that their personal information, including credit card details, may have been stolen.

The company said that the data might have fallen into the hands of an "unauthorised person" following a hacking attack on its online service.

Access to the network was suspended last Wednesday, but Sony has only now revealed details of what happened.

Users are being warned to look out for attempted telephone and e-mail scams.

In a statement posted on the official PlayStation blog, Nick Caplin, the company's head of communications for Europe, said: "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".

The blog posting lists the personal information that Sony believes has been taken.

Name
Address (city, state/province, zip or postal code)
Country
E-mail address
Date of birth
PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login
Handle/PSN online ID
Mr Caplin added: "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.

"For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information."

Credit cards
Sony admitted that credit card information, used to purchase games, films and music, may also have been stolen.

"While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility," Mr Caplin said.

"If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."

Sony has not given any indication of how many PlayStation Network users may have had their information taken, but the service has around 70 million members worldwide.

'PR Disaster'
The theft of so much detailed customer data would be seen as a "public relations disaster", according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos.

"This is a big one," he told BBC News.

"The PlayStation Network is a real consumer product. It is in lots of homes all over the world.

"The impact of this could be much greater than your typical internet hack."

Mr Cluley warned that, even without credit card details, the information taken was enough to help criminals carry out further attacks on other services.

"Some people will use the same passwords on other sites. If I was a hacker right now, I would be taking those e-mail addresses and trying those passwords," he said.

User anger

Some streaming media services available on PlayStation have been affected by the outage
PlayStation users got their first indication that something was wrong with the service when it became unavailable on Wednesday 20 April.

In the following days, Sony issued three brief statements asking users to be patient while it investigated an "external intrusion", or hack.

However, the fact that it took almost seven days for the company to reveal that data had been taken has angered some gamers.

Commenting on the Sony blog, Tacotaskforce wrote: "You waited a week to tell us our personal information was compromised? That should have been said last Thursday."

Another user Sid4peeps wrote: "This update is about 6 days late. I think it is time to move to the other network, no regard for customers here."

But some PlayStation users appeared to be happy with Sony's handling of the matter. Ejsponge61 commented: "Wow, this is alot of info. Thanks, this is very much appreciated by all of us PlayStation fans."

The Sony PlayStation Network remains unavailable to users. The company has not said when service will be restored.

It's bad shit like.

But they didnt know how bad this was until yesterday, and even now they aren't 100% sure. Its just a precaution that they have to make public. Last Thursday they just assumed it was part of the DDoS attack by Anon by this is just something they probably should put out there on the off chance.

From what I've read today, the network is basically been down the last few days by Sony's choice to basically secure and rebuild the system.

Bit far to say its the worst console ever tho. The network wasn't as secure as it could have been this is true, but there's nothing saying that any other console has a higher level of protection. The PS Network only came under attack because Sony pissed off Anon by taking Linux off the console and suing a guy who tried to get it back.

Remember Anon pulls this shit all the time, its just been a case of Sony being ill prepared and suffering as a result.

Its not actually Anonymous though, its another organisation/unorganisation, if it was Anon they would have announced they were doing it, then claimed victory a week ago. Anonymous said they were mighty fucked off with the PSHack debacle but hadnt said yet they were attacking. DoS Attack wouldnt have done this damage either.

Sony have been pulling dodgy shit for years now, theres a part of me that actually enjoys seeing Sony in the shite, dirty tricks galore with that lot.

Not fair its users should suffer though.

Supreme Court in America have kicked off about this too, that Sony never had a back up plan for this coming, interesting to see where that goes.

PS3 has been complete fail since it's unveiling, may I remind you of their....underwhelming launch show...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2w2l1JTs4&feature=related

Not to mention the ridiculous price it was when it came out, and then the PSN. I remember a lot of people arguing with me that Xbox Live was crap because you paid for it and PSN was free. PSN was free for a reason, and unfortunately for all those pro-PSNers, they got it soooo wrong. You pay for Xbox Live for a good reason. Maybe Sony should learn this.

Also, shame on Sony for being so vague on the details of this debacle and for denying the other day that hackers weren't pinching credit card details. Wouldn't have been quite as bad saying "We don't know", but the fact that they said "Nope, they cant steal them" sums up the shadyness of this company. As much as I'm not a fan of Microsoft, they've got it right when it came to the Xbox.

Ill check the video later.

Its a nice wee toy and all that, games play just as well as Xbox but letting slip the details of 77 million people is one of the biggest screw ups in Data Protection of all time, shocking really.

Sony never want negativity around them, only good things, so when something like this happens, they tend to lay low for a while - like when they employed journalists to review their own products.

Not a fan of MS either, but they nailed it with the 360, with no current need to make another generation machine.

The fact that they had no backup plan for this kind of event is shocking, and was made all the worse with the release of a number of new high-profile games for PS3 the past weekend (SOCOM4 and Mortal Kombat) - all of which are primarily online based games!

Bet you're glad I convinced you to buy an xbox now!

The price on Amazon for the console alone convinced me otherwise - everything I have now cost same as console!

Theres a new article on this on the BBC, dont think they get some bits correct here.....

But some PlayStation users appeared to be happy with Sony's handling of the matter. Ejsponge61 commented: "Wow, this is alot of info. Thanks, this is very much appreciated by all of us PlayStation fans."

Dont think someone at the Beeb understands internet sarcasm.

Lol aye saw that, not very good at detecting sarcasm! Same as some woman in the comments section who asked "what's a n00b?"

Sony have been struggling to keep up with the xbox really, ill give you that. Read somewhere though that last year and the start of this year the PS3 sold a more consoles that xbox for the first time since launch.

Bad timing really

I'm still convinced its some sub-faction of anon. There's no real reason for any of this otherwise. One guys decided to see how far he can go and tried his luck at getting details. It's not something that should have been allowed to happen in the first place, but it has. To be fair, theres not a lot sony can actually do until the whole thing is tidied up and they know how bad the situation is. There's not really any way that anybody can know whats been compromised/if anything.

The PSN was pretty frail to begin with, but amazon, paypal, mastercard n visa have all been hit by similar attacks. There's no reason why the same thing couldn't happen to live.

Read a blog by a software engineer who was shocked that Sony don't even use any real encryption when it comes to users details, basically inviting hackers to steal it. Seriously hope that ps3 users get some sort of compensation for the debacle

Aye read about the sales figures increasing for ps3, however it's mostly just in Europe. In the USA xbox is still completely outselling the ps3 especially with kinect. Wii still miles ahead, don't know how though.

Hang on....the user details WHERE NOT encrypted?!

'Sake, even I have written encryption stuff for the Belfast Murmur site....jesus Sony...

Apparently they were just saved as plain old text! The guy's blog completely ripped into them, obviously as you'd expect Sony to use at least some form of encryption. Ridiculous really

And it gets better...Sony are now being sued!!!

From CVG

The inevitable has happened; and American PSN user has jumped at the chance to sue Sony over the leaking of PSN users' personal data following hacker attacks last week.

The lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of a Kristopher Johns, 36, of Birmingham, Alabama.


Johns accuses Sony of not taking "reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data of its users."

Johns' also complains that Sony took too long to inform users of the security breach, preventing users from being about to "to make an informed decision as to whether to change credit card numbers, close the exposed accounts, check their credit reports, or take other mitigating actions."

He's seeking monetary compensation, of course, as well as free credit card monitoring.

Sony pulled the plug on PSN last week after discovering a major security breach and informed customers yesterday that their personal information likely including credit card numbers had been compromised by hackers.

If I had one, hell, Id sue, why should 77 million people suffer for a company (who are known for playing dirty) who fucked up.

Exactly, this is going to ruin Sony's worldwide image, really need to compensate all those users somehow.

Loving some of the fanboy reactions though. Never thought something as simple as "Should have bought an xbox" would be so funny and apt

Dave wrote: "Should have bought an xbox"

Problem is, there's nothing stopping someone turning around and saying, "right, lets go for Microsoft now" and taking everyones on it, tables = turned.

Microsoft have been at this game longer and therefore have a better security system in place, but every system can be broken, its just knowing how.

I think at the same time, people wanted to hack Sony's because of the amount of screw-ups they've already made, especially with the hardware updates and ridiculous add-ons. Microsoft did have issues on the older 360s with the Red Ring of Death (even I got it) but the difference is they had a plan in place to sort it out - if you got RROD, simply send it off to them and they fix it and take care of the costs. When mine Red Ringed, I sent it off, they paid for shipping and repairs and had it back to me in 10 days with a new motherboard, and even gave me a free month of Xbox Live access and a copy of Call of Duty 4 (which was only recently released at the time) for my troubles, which was very nice of them. That, Sony, is how you deal with a problem.

I would say microsoft are pretty safe unless they piss somebody off.

Sony went looking for a fight..... found it..... lost

Can't see the lawsuit going anywhere to be honest. The story from their side is that they enlisted some sort of professional.... people.... in to see what the damage to the network was, they realised on tuesday that stuff might have been taken, and reported it. Have to say that alot of what I've read is people filling in the blanks with what they think is happening rather than what sony have officially stated.

Either way, the whole situation is pretty shitty, pretty much a PR disaster.

Schadenfreude - Its why I love watching Sony get fecked. Why I love watching MS get screwed when Vista came out, and why I enjoy watching United play poorly.

MS try to be helpful, fair enough they have failed plenty of times but are picking up since they now have Apple as a real rival.

Sony always played dirty anyway, had it coming to them really - you buy their product but you are not allowed to tinker with it unless you want sued - that in itself is a disgrace.

Aye it's safe to say its a disaster! Although Sony claim to have only found out the other night about the credit card thing, I wouldn't be so quick to believe them. Companies like this are always trying to cover things up in order to prevent more damage happening, so I reckon I'll reserve judgement until the whole mess gets sorted out. Either way Sony have screwed themselves I reckon. It'll be a lesson to other companies to ensure that they make sure customers' details are kept secret

Alterz wrote: you buy their product but you are not allowed to tinker with it unless you want sued - that in itself is a disgrace.

This is the problem i have with apple.

For some reason sony took that away from the ps3 in an update last year, never understood why.... and this was the consequence lol

Gerbilmuncher wrote:

Alterz wrote: you buy their product but you are not allowed to tinker with it unless you want sued - that in itself is a disgrace.

This is the problem i have with apple.

Didnt I tell you this story?

I am a Linux Programmer. I put linux on my iPhone (started to fucking work after that). I walk into Apple store. I reply to a text. An employee spots me using Linux on iPhone. Claims I have offended them and broken the terms and conditions of owning said device. After length discussion - calm discussion at that - I am removed by an employee at said Apple store.

Fuck you Apple. Fuck you indeed.

You pay for it. Legally it becomes your property. You therefore have the right to do whatever you want with it.

It's like buying a Veyron...and driving around in 2nd gear it's entire life

Dave wrote:You pay for it. Legally it becomes your property. You therefore have the right to do whatever you want with it.

Due to "Terms and Conditions"...


Not when it comes to Microsoft Operating Systems - you have purchased the right to use one copy of their OS, not do anything with it.

Apple - you are being allowed to use their product - you never actually own it, nor can you tamper with it.

Sony Playstations - you are being allowed usage of their product, but tamper with it and you are fucked.

Linux - do what you want. Its free and we support developers.

Which one do I use there...

Linux have the right idea and most common sense when it comes to "Terms and Conditions" - you pay for it. do what you want. The fact that you pay so much money for these products only to be limited in what you can do is a disgrace. We should all stick Linux on our iPhones/iPods and go into the Apple Store at the same time and see what they do. Can't stand Apple geeks.

Dave wrote:and see what they do. Can't stand Apple geeks.

Ive done this before, they just ask you to leave, if you dont, a gang of them ask you to leave!

Had to cheek to leave a few Mint disks just lying around the computers on the bottom floor in the store. They appear to not have lasted very long.

The deal with linux is, since its open source, and mainly free, the sky is the limit, people just wont move to it because they either recognise Apple or learnt on a Windows machine, therefore think they have to "relearn" everything. Ignorance is bliss.

And yes, Apple fanboys are the worst kind of fanboys.