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PSN Outage Continues, Console Hack Claimed To Be Responsible
Over the weekend, we discussed news that the PlayStation Network had been down for days, with Sony saying little other than that it was caused by an "external intrusion" and that they were "rebuilding their network." Many of you have written to point out that the outage continues, with Sony saying they "don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point." One theory about the cause behind the network's downtime was recently espoused on Reddit by 'chesh,' a moderator at PlayStation-modding enthusiast site PSX-Scene.com. According to him, recently released custom firmware called Rebug allowed people to essentially turn their PS3s into dev consoles, though some features were missing. A different group supposedly used this firmware to get on PSN through the developer networks, and also found that fake credit card numbers were not being validated for game purchases, leading to what chesh called "extreme piracy." He acknowledges that this theory is speculation. Sony's handling of this outage is starting to draw attention from the government. Update: 04/26 20:47 GMT by S : Sony just posted more details, saying that a massive data breach occurred: An "unauthorized person" has PSN users' "name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID." Billing address, password questions, and credit card info may also have been taken.
I understand that the slashdot community might be anxious to see the PSN come back up, but do we seriously have to start publishing nothing more substantial than speculation?
Also, I've met Dick Blumenthal. He's a very nice man. However, he is, by no means, "the government", nor does a single letter from a freshman senator constitute "attention from the government".
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
A one-week outage does not make Xbox live better.
Is there anything that isn't government business anymore?
why is the PSN outage any of the (US?) government's business?
Because Senators are suppose to represent their constituents and the issues they care about (lets leave the vote pandering cynicism discussion as off-topic for now) and his constituents are worried their personal/financial details were compromised in the attack so it makes sense that he would ask Sony whether or not this is the case as he has a better chance of being responded to because he wields more power.
It makes just about anything else better, for a week.
A one-week outage does not make Xbox live better.
Yeah, it's not the outage that makes Xbox live better, it's the external intrusion. Nothing quite like an external intrusion into a company that holds your credit/debit card data to make you wish you could pay for better service.
Even if Sony offered a pay service, the same would have likely happened. I don't see the validity in your complaint.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Or we are seeing what happens when a company become so arrogant that they don't bother actually locking down this info despite the fact that it would be inevitable that someone would come along and find a backdoor.
Seriously, a 'hacked PS3' being able to do this is pretty much the definition of "Security Design Failure".
Yeah, can't you wait until your Blu-Ray player stops working too, every time you want to watch a movie? This is why you can't have "server" verification. Because there's no guarantee the server will be there.
Tell your friend to return the game. It's broken. Get his money back. It's designed to fail.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
face-saving talk...
if they say "may have been", they mean "definitely has been".
if they say "working around the clock to fix it", they mean "shitting in our pants and yelling at our techies but not authorizing overtime for them".
the mere mention of CC details, and the advice to avoid scammers is basically confirmation.
they're using the same language that TEPCO has been using the last month (not just Japanese).