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Sony To Offer Free Identity Theft Monitoring
olsmeister writes "Several weeks after having the PlayStation Network hacked, and apologizing to users for the breach, Sony is offering $1 million in identity theft protection for users who sign up before June 18th. The protection is being offered through Debix and is called AllClear ID Plus. This appears to be some kind of custom plan especially for Sony, as their normal offerings are called AllClear ID Free and AllClear ID Pro."
I'd trust Sony with protecting (or arranging protection of) my identity...
So, when we sign up for this (somewhat unknown) Debix service, can we look forward to our full identities being stolen in the near future?
What rights am I signing away by doing this?
If I understand this correctly, Sony will sell you insurance to the tune that, if doing business with them gets you ripped off, you get reimbursed?
And a year for free!
I have the lifetime policy, I don't do business with them.
They learned from their break-in. Now, Sony gets 10% of any revenue gained from the stealing of identities from their service. The finance team wouldn't let them lose this opportunity.
PPPPPP!
It looks awfully like an American company for American users. What about the rest of the world?
Not that I care as I don't own anything made by Sony.
This is like offering you an umbrella after they pour a bucket of water over your head.
Fact: Your data is stolen and is currently being sold in underground markets!
Sony gives you a free ID Theft Protection service, which will in turn, have their servers hacked next week.
It's the random quote that's always been at the bottom of every single page. It's switched every 15 minutes or every hour or something.
I don't know who Matt Welsh is, but his quote sucks.
I've already changed my credit card and moved since the time long ago when they got my info, so the info that was leaked is all invalid anyways.
Hmm.... if there was some way to find out... if only...
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Why? It's a question and a legitimate one, not an affirmation. Booing at these questions is what fanboyism is about.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
This quote has been there for a few days now though, I noticed it because I often see what random funny quote is down there.
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Yeah I trust SONY......
Might as well just post my CC# on 4chan
Judging by the negative reactions already, I wonder.. what should SONY do?
Right now they're offering all sorts of stuff that usually isn't offered at all. You get a small post on a website or in (a) major newspaper(s) at best that tells you there was a breach, oopsie, and go contact your credit card issuer if you think that's a Bad Thing.
But clearly doing more than most other businesses do, isn't good enough.
So what should SONY do?
Viable options only, please. "Die in a fire" and "pay me $1M" and such I'm gonna guess aren't viable - solid arguments as to why they would be are welcomed nevertheless, they might yield a +5 Funny if nothing else.
Except it hasn't been switched in about a month. The fact that pedantic geeks (myself included) have waited a month to raise a fuss about it is rather unlike most slashdot users.
As a victim of Identity Theft, I'd recommend to the people impacted by the Sony debacle (or any other ID breach) to freeze your credit. It costs (in New York, varies in other states) $5 per credit company per person. There are 3 major companies, thus $15 per person. Of course, this fee might be waived if you are a victim of ID theft. Details (and state specific fees) can be found here: http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html
Once frozen, nobody can check your credit or open new lines of credit. If you need to allow this action (e.g. because you are buying a car or applying for a job which requires a background check), you can temporarily unfreeze your credit. You can even specify who the temporary unfreeze applies to and for how long. (For example, "Friendly Car Loans can read my credit file from May 6th through May 20th.")
Of course, the credit bureaus don't like you freezing your credit because it means you can't sign up for those "Save 5% on your purchase by opening a credit card with us today" store cards. It also means they can't sell your credit information to other companies. But, honestly, those negatives for them are just more pluses for us.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I know... this is old but simply needs to be repeated until people "get it." ID theft is, at the very least, a misnomer and in my opinion an outright lie.
What this all boils down to is data that can be used to access accounts with banks and lenders. They created this insecure system for THEIR convenience. Now they are calling all that data "your identity" and when someone exploits their system, it is "YOU" who are the victim somehow. This is insanity. There was a great video about identity theft and the banking system someone linked to on youtube once. Hilarious but accurate. Some british comedy I recall. Anyone got that?
This system of convenience at our expense has got to end. It's simply ridiculous.
Except Sony bit Geohotz, and it peed on our file registry's. It doesn't play well with the other pets. Yeah, ditch it!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I see their only offering this to the people of Northen America, what about us in Europe.
Seriously, they offer credit protection for 1 year??? Like the your personal information that they had stolen from them EXPIRES in one year or something? With all those millions of records at hand, chances are whoever has their hands on this data will not even get to you until 3-5 years from now (good luck proving then that sony had something to do with it:( )
Yup...it's been stolen
So will they be up and running by June 18th so we can sign up?
And will this be one of those "Free for one year, and then we'll start charging you $20 a month unless you remember to cancel", type things?
I'm not a PSN member, but after the Sony Rootkit Scandal I would be very reluctant with any software offered by Sony.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
In some reports, there were 77 million people's credit information stolen, but Sony is only setting aside 1 million dollars. Sony must be getting a really good deal on this credit monitoring they are giving out. That or they don't expect very many people to sign up for it. Sorry, it was only for the first 100,000 customers, you are out of luck.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
I noticed that this is good for the US only. What about Canadians?
My first thought when seeing yet another tale of mass identity theft is, why this is still happening so often? There are good solutions to security (I haven't seen any major banks hacked, have you?) and there's no damned reason why every business on the Net needs to store enough personal information on me to destroy my credit either. What will it take to give businesses or government (if they could be bothered to do any favors for the bottom 99% of us) the incentive to stop allowing this?
My second thought is that Sony is a bunch of asshats with a completely cavalier attitude towards their customers.
Ask me about my sig!
At least that's what CNet heard through the grapevine.
Interesting is this:
The failure of Sony's server security has ignited investigations by the FBI, the Department of Justice, Congress, and the New York State Attorney General,
Excuse me? New York State AG? Weren't those PSN guys arguing against Hotz that they are in California and not New York??
...Sony discovers a way to profit off of the data theft of its customers by upselling services after a 1 year trial with two of its business partners.
Sony business practices are brilliantly Machiavellian.
This is Sony's fault. They should take every CC number they have, go to Visa, Discover, or MC and say. "We've had an epic data breach and we need to protect our customers. These are their card numbers. Please bill us." If they can't go directly to Visa or MC, then the first several digits encodes the issuing bank. They should then go to that bank and repeat the request fro the customers of that bank.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Sony has yet to offer this protection to Canadians. More reason to jump on the Canadian class action lawsuit bandwagon.
What I don't understand is why everyone is so afraid of ID theft after this hack.
I'm not going to defend Sony here on any of their actions, from the reports so far it seems they really f-ed up (even though it's the actual criminal that should get primary blame), but apart from the possible CC info (which I already had replaced), what informations do(es) the hacker(s) really have? Name and Address? We do realize that for most world citizens that have the money to have bought a PS3 system, that information is already... I don't know, like everywhere? Actively being collected by hundreds if not thousands of corporations and being (legally) sold between entities throughout the world.
The only major thing is the password (though hashed, it might be retrievable with rainbow tables as I haven't read anywhere they also salted it) and the security question. Both can be a problem if you use the same one often of course. But it's not like someone has your SSN and can go open a credit in your name right? Or is it really possible in some countries to do that with just your name and address? I can't imagine, but if it is, those countries really need to rework their financial branch a.s.a.p.
Look, I'm not saying this is extremely inconvenient (cancel CC, get new one and if you didn't use a unique password / security question, change them elsewhere) and I'm pissed this happened, but being afraid of the ID theft because of this hack, seems like being afraid of dieing when you've just been stung by a bee... I'm not saying it's impossible, but seems highly unlikely. But please, if I missed something somewhere, correct me if I'm wrong.
"This should be fun, and by fun, I mean a wholly depressing insight into the cognitive ability of some grown adults."
I wouldn't put it past Sony that this free plan auto-renews after the time period (into one of the paid plans).
Listen up buddy, if you're going to be a helpful jackass, proper form is to use a lmgtfy link.
thusly - WTF is Matt Welsh ?!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
User: Ack! My account!
Sony: Yeah, it was trashed by those three guys. I think they were called the "Something Brothers".
User: You were watching?
Sony: Uh-huh!
User: Then Sony, why didn't you tell me about it?
Sony: But I did tell you. I told you just now!
(Full pardons to Cowboy Bebop...)
Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
So does that make Debix a prime suspect for the hack? They are suddenly getting a large number of customers locked into their service.
"...A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers..."
Hopefully they will do the same for the rest of the world too.
First the offer free identity theft, then they offer to help you monitor it for free! Sony's really pulling out all of the stops.
I meant to do that at first following /. tradition and all, but that'd be like adding insult to ... nevermind
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
This article misses the real gem here, which is Howard Stinger trying to leverage the events of the tsunami in an effort to somehow generate sympathy for their screw up -
In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event – a criminal attack on us — and on you — and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.
Yeah, real sensitive there, Howard.
ENOUGH!
The rootkit installed as part of the service will keep your data safe.
..Sony to offer free identity theft this morning
There, fixed that for ya.
Pretty sure that by signing up for the monitoring you waive your right to sue / be involved in a class action suit. Same thing has happened with other data breaches -- i.e. you've already accepted their offer of remediation. Unlike what others have posted below, the new EULA means nothing if you accept this offer.
for maybe losing your information. It sounds an aweful lot like a corporation trying to be responsible, which is probably why it is so confusing to you Yanks.
So does it count if Sony steal your ID? I'm thinking Sony is clever. Those rootkits weren't for nothing.
The best ideas are common property
They said all I had to provide was my PSN login ID, full name, address, phone number, credit card number, credit expiration date, credit card security code, mother's maiden name, social security number, router WEP2 password, bank account number, recent photo graph, times when I would not be home, locations of my valuables, and high res photograph of my house key.
You're AC so will be ignored, but you are correct.
Sony did a bad thing, and it's fun to joke about their crappy form of compensation, but really - what else should they do?
They are offering an opt-in service for a year that will monitor for and help fix issues related to identity theft and includes insurance to fix your credit if something does happen. This seems pretty fair to me.