Were They or Were They Not Stolen?

The recent breach of the PlayStation Network has left users in awe.  As of the day before yesterday we were informed that our credit card information had been compromised due to the fact that whoever hacked the PSN had obtained our information directly.  

Today, Sony’s whistling to a different tune.

It is said that all of our data was indeed encrypted and so whatever the hackers received will not be our credit card numbers directly. 

“All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network,” Sony says in a statement on the PlayStation Blog.  “The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken.  The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.”  Sony also stated that the security codes on the cards (usually called CVC or CSC numbers) were not stored on the PSN or the Qriocity media service.  As you know if you’re an avid online shopper, those codes are needed to complete transactions.

There has been slight confusion about the emails that have gone out over the past couple of days and we’re going to clear that up for you.  If you received this email from Sony it is purely a warning that your data MAY have been stolen, not that it was.

Remember GeoHot?  The guy who was able to jailbreak the PlayStation that inevitably fled to South America in an attempt to evade Sony’s lawyers?  Well, of course he has a statement regarding his innocence towards this matter by saying that he “would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door,” he also states that he was “one of the good guys…I used to play games online on PC, I hated cheaters then and I hate them now.”  

A couple of days after Reuters reported that Sony will be working with the FBI on this case, Sony also confirmed that they were working alongside “law enforcement.”  Though they didn’t release any details as to just which organization they were working with, they did state that it was a “recognized technology security firm.”

I know you’re all hoping that at the end of this post there’s going to be a specific date on when the PSN will be up but as Sony has said, “We want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we are confident that the network is secure.”

For a detailed play-by-play timeline of the PSN outage you can check it out here.

PSN Down for Devs

There are two separate types of PSN servers, you have the ones for general users and then one for developers.  Unless you work at a video game development company, you will be classified as a "general user."

We all know that the PSN has been down for an entire week for "general users" and guess what?  Now it's down for the devs as well.

Today, Sony issued an emergency maintenance message on the PSN for the devs to see stating that they will be unable to sign into the PSN until the emergency maintenance has been resolved.

This down time would have been the perfect time for the devs to create and test their patches/DLC without the general public breathing down their neck solely because we cannot get into our PSN's anyway so we're not going to be pressuring anyone to put out any products.

Unfortunately though, we're all in the same boat and if Sony keeps at it, neither group will get their hands on the PSN for a while longer.



Source: GamePro

PSN Outage Timeline

At first we were okay with the PSN outage, thinking that it would only last a couple of days and that we had enough offline material to play to keep us entertained.  Then it came to Monday April 25th and after what, 5 days of no PSN?  I’m seriously craving a lot of my online games and still no word on when exactly it will be restored to full health.

I’m going to put together a timeline so that you can all judge just how long this has been:

April 20th, 2011

The PlayStation Blog comments on the fact that they are aware of the PSN being down and they reassure us that they will update us with more info when they can.

“We’re aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down.  We will report back here as soon as we can with more information.  Thank you for your patience.”

April 21st, 2011

Sony comments that the PSN may be down for a day or two before they can get the functionality back up on the service.

“While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running.  Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter.  Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we’ll update you again as soon as we can.”

April 22nd, 2011

All of our rumours were proven to be true, Sony recognized the fact that an outside person/group got their way into the PSN and Qriocity servers.  For them to analyze just how big of an impact the hack was, they had to shut down the servers on April 20th.

“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.”

April 23rd, 2011

Sony apologizes for the servers being down and explains that they have been “suspended.”  Sony assures its users that they are re-building the entire network to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.  Of course this proves to be time consuming and they “sincerely regret” that this has been happening.

“We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online.  Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure.  Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.
We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project.  We will continue to give you updates as they become available.”

April 25th, 2011

No updates as of yet, aside from the fact that Sony is unaware of whether any credit card information has been compromised or not.  Unfortunately, you are unable to remove your credit card information if the PSN is down.  Those who have been compromised will be notified, per usual.  And so we continue to wait!


April 26th, 2011


Official statement released about people's personal information being hacked and stolen.  Sony explains that they will be sending out an email similar to the one on this page if your information has been compromised.


Added info: Sony explains that they became aware of the intrusion on April 19th and have shut down the servers since then.  They also explained how it took their experts until yesterday to figure out just how deep the intrusion was.  They also direct you to the FAQ to answer any questions that you guys may have!


April 27th, 2011


Sony once again apologizes for any discontent this may have brought to its users.  They also assure that they will be working very hard to make the network "more secure" than it has ever been before.  

"First off, we want to again thank you for your patience.  We know that the PlayStation Network and Qriocity outage has been frustrating for you.  We know you are upset, and so we are taking steps to make our services safer and more secure than ever before.  We sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern this outage has cause, and rest assured that we're going to get the services back online as quickly as we can."

Sony recognizes that there were some questions on the FAQ regarding the criminal activity to their servers and they decide to answer them for you, you can read that on their blog.

"We received a number of questions and comments yesterday and early today relating to the criminal intrusion into our network.  We'd like to address some of the most common questions today.
We are also going to continue to post updates to this blog with any additional information and insight that we can over the next few days."

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I have absolutely nothing against Sony, considering that they’re claiming that this isn’t their fault.  If you look at it from another way though, Anonymous, the group that had originally threatened Sony and their PSN are saying that they had nothing to do with it in the least.  Though there are no official statements about who hacked what or who’s blaming who, you can kind of put two and two together.


For more info on Anonymous you can go here and here.

Keep up the work, Sony, you’ll get there.

PSN Continues To Stay Offline

Posted By: Bretto

The Playstation Network ( PSN ) has now been offline for a couple of days. Sony Entertainment claims that maintenance they are performing is due to server issues in Japan, however, many Playstation users are starting to believe other wise.  If you make a call to sony asking for information on the issue, they will simply say they do not know any information other than maintenance is being performed and it should take a day or two (as of April 21 2:00 A.M. Eastern). 

Earlier this year, the internet known group "Anonymous" began sending threats to Sony, in regards that they were taking advantage of their customers, insinuating they would be coming after Sony via the Playstation Network. An update was soon sent out by the group saying they would be coming after Sony and not the users. 

With the current PSN events and lack of information we are receiving about the PSN downtime, it is looking more and more likely that Anonymous might have some involvement. Furthermore, Anonymous has stated they have nothing to do with the PSN problems at this time, but would not rule out other Anonymous followers as possible disturbers.