PSN outage

Playstation Network, the means by which Playstation owners get online has been down for a week. This means that worldwide, Playstation gamers haven't been able to do anything online (play, download content, watch movies, etc) for seven days, including a time when people would traditionally have a lot of time to laze on ye olde Playstation.

Initially, the hacking group Anonymous was suspected of involvement. They have been vocal about Sony's prosecution of George 'Geohotz' Hotz, the guy who worked out how to jailbreak a PS3. They've made threats to Sony's business. The main arm of the group has denied attacking PSN. However, there are theories that a hardline splinter group might have broken off and orchestrated an attack independently.

Today, a new theory emerged claiming that Sony may have intentionally pulled PSN to plug massive holes in its own security. Specifically, it is alleged that they are worried about a firmware update called REBUG. This essentially enables the dev features on a PS3.

You might not think this much of an issue on a Playstation that has already been cracked, but one of the dev features it enables is access to a private developer network. This is a copy of PSN intended for developer use with slightly relaxed security ( features like credit card validation disabled ). The theory is that people have been using REBUG to log into this private network and download a ton of PSN content for free.

So, a huge PR disaster for Sony. One way or another, they're incompetent, and their customers have been down for a week.

As a software developer myself, I can definitely attest to the fact that companies feature parallel environments for test and production, so the last theory has a hint of plausibility. Also, having a 50 user system down for half a day is bad enough. A week is a massive outage.

Been affected? Thoughts? Would it affect your future hardware decisions?

Its certainly been ****ing me off, but the Mrs is chuffed - "oh no, that's a shame"

That's what you get if you expect a system for free. Xbox Live still seems to be working fine funnily enough.

Was surprised noone started a thread on this sooner. It's been niggling away at me enough to keep checking twitter for updates but I'm not on it enough to be seriously effected. FIFA just isnt the same offline though......

Wouldn't stop me buying future playstations though as they are still the best IMO. Things like this happen and Microsoft are more than capable of majorly screwing things up too.

That's what you get if you expect a system for free. Xbox Live still seems to be working fine funnily enough.

December 2008 Xbox live was down for 2 weeks due to hackers.

Im quite worried this will be the nail in the coffin of free online gaming. Perfect oppertunity to say "pay a subscription to help us with the best security systems to prevent this happening again"

December 2008 Xbox live was down for 2 weeks due to hackers.

Not quite. Live was up and down through those 2 weeks but was never offline for more then 3hrs at a single time. Not everyone was affected by it and it mostly affected the ability to buy items from the marketplace. You could still play games online just couldn't buy add-ons for them. If you want to re-live that period and see what happened can read this thread http://uk.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26614899/is-live-down-again--well-it-seems-to-be-working-right-now?page=0

So not quite the same thing. One was up and down for some people. PSN is down for everyone for a week.

Personally i would not be worried about not being able to play games. I'd be more worried that your credit card and personal details could have been stolen

http://www.pcworld.com/article/226162/Sony_Yet_to_Determine_Scope_of_PlayStation_Network_Attack.html

Just thought i'd post this reply for you guys as it is a press release that Sony just put out

"Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services. We are currently working to send a similar message to the one below via email to all of our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems. These malicious actions have also had an impact on your ability to enjoy the services provided by PlayStation Network and Qriocity including online gaming and online access to music, movies, sports and TV shows. We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.

We’re working day and night to ensure it is done as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and feedback.

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:

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. In response to this intrusion, we have:

•Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;

•Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

•Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. 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. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date 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. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information for those who wish to consider it:

U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.

We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S. credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus place a “fraud alert” on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you, it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report, please contact any one of the agencies listed below.

Experian: 888-397-3742; http://www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

Equifax: 800-525-6285; http://www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

TransUnion: 800-680-7289; http://www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or http://www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or http://www.oag.state.md.us.

We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment

As i said above, the bold bit would be the thing to worry about!!

Just thought i'd post this reply for you guys as it is a press release that Sony just put out

 

"Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services. We are currently working to send a similar message to the one below via email to all of our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems. These malicious actions have also had an impact on your ability to enjoy the services provided by PlayStation Network and Qriocity including online gaming and online access to music, movies, sports and TV shows. We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.

 

We’re working day and night to ensure it is done as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and feedback.

 

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:

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. In response to this intrusion, we have:

•Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;

•Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

•Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

 

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

 

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. 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. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date 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. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

 

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information for those who wish to consider it:

 

U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.

 

We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S. credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus place a “fraud alert” on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you, it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report, please contact any one of the agencies listed below.

 

Experian: 888-397-3742; http://www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

Equifax: 800-525-6285; http://www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

TransUnion: 800-680-7289; http://www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

 

You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or http://www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or http://www.oag.state.md.us.

 

We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any additional questions.

 

Sincerely,

Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment

 

As i said above, the bold bit would be the thing to worry about!!

not good.

Can't remember for the life of me which card I used. Hoping it's the credit card and therefore covered for fraud.

Personal info being obtained is also a worry but you can get that anywhere these days....

This is bad.

I want PSN back before Friday!

Oooooo glad my details are nice and safe and not in the hands of some now-rich-off-all-your-cash mong bean.

Deffo worth the £25 a year Xbox Live subscription. Think I'll get back to playing Portal 2 online now. Bye suckers

(as an aside, I did have a ps3 but sold it on the back of its MASSIVELY inferior, slow, and out and out poor online service, it simply doesn't compare to Xbox live in terms of speed and reliability, yes this was bought on by a malicious attack but you just can't see this sort of thing happening to Microsoft, can you.)

Glad i've got an Xbox.

Going crazy without FIFA online.

Going crazy without FIFA online.

Tried playing single player the other day for the first time in ages... Its really not the same and the AI is just so predictable.

I'll give you a game griffo when we have the luxury of PSN back

Tried playing single player the other day for the first time in ages... Its really not the same and the AI is just so predictable.

 

I'll give you a game griffo when we have the luxury of PSN back

Yep, definitely.

It's free yes but some like myself pay for PSN plus.

Hopefully when it's fixed and back up they will be compensating the psn plus users.

It's free yes but some like myself pay for PSN plus.

 

Hopefully when it's fixed and back up they will be compensating the psn plus users.

Agreed, I bought a 90 day, non-recurring subscription, though I probably wouldn't hope for more than an extension to that and probably wouldn't notice if I didn't.

As ever this sort of thing turns into x-box vs PS3 p*ssing contest. Personally I'm always going to fall on the side of the PS3, and if this event means a subscription service comes in, then so be it. AS LONG as the network is better/more stable, then happy days (maybe less irritating 10 year olds on CoD too...).

As for the shut down itself, the conspiracies are too geeky and complex for me to understand and care about. I'll stick with Sony's explanation as they're either protecting us (the users) or themselves (as they are perfectly entitled to do) or both as a responsible multi-national holding personal data should.

As for the hackers... Why??? what does it serve?

Here is a good article for you Barfy from Eurogamer

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-psn-security-scandal

It should help you to understand why Sony are in so much trouble from this and why people are so angry.

It really isn't xbox fans being ****ed off at Sony. It is that your details (name, date of birth, address, country, credit card, bank account, email address and whatever Sony won't reveal) are now in the hands of people you really don't want to have. With basically no security to stop them getting to it.

December 2008 Xbox live was down for 2 weeks due to hackers.

er ... wrong as Marco said.

I'd just got my K : D above 1.30 for the 1st time on Black Ops. If these f**kers reset everything and I have to start from zero again I'm going to be very unchuffed.

Plus, if we have to re-set user names and passwords etc how will they know who has downloaded the map extensions etc?

http://www.destructoid.com/huge-scary-shirtless-dude-begs-gamers-to-unhack-psn-199657.phtml

Lol

Think he speaks for us all.... Kind of.

I'd just got my K : D above 1.30 for the 1st time on Black Ops. If these f**kers reset everything and I have to start from zero again I'm going to be very unchuffed.

 

Plus, if we have to re-set user names and passwords etc how will they know who has downloaded the map extensions etc?

Just start over and kill 2 people before you die and you'll have 1.5! ;-)

Luckily I own both so can still play fifa online

Sods law that I come back from Uni with a need to play FIFA 10 online (too poor to buy FIFA 11), and PSN goes down. F*ck sake.

I've tried 'Be A Pro' mode, i've taken my pro from 62 to 84 since Sunday, but it's just not the same....

people saying how much better xbov live is are really stupid most games such as cod and fifa do not have dedicated servers so is only as good as the host playing the game.

fail.

lol. You should have bought an xbox.

people saying how much better xbov live is are really stupid most games such as cod and fifa do not have dedicated servers so is only as good as the host playing the game.

fail.

whats this got to do with user security issues?

I'd just got my K : D above 1.30 for the 1st time on Black Ops. If these f**kers reset everything and I have to start from zero again I'm going to be very unchuffed.

 

Plus, if we have to re-set user names and passwords etc how will they know who has downloaded the map extensions etc?

I think I recently went prestige for the 6th time, so will be royally p*ssed off if I lose that, not to mention the platinum trophy I got on FF13... Fingers crossed they haven't lost everything, and it was just copied off the servers...

Here is a good article for you Barfy from Eurogamer

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-psn-security-scandal

 

It should help you to understand why Sony are in so much trouble from this and why people are so angry.

 

It really isn't xbox fans being ****ed off at Sony. It is that your details (name, date of birth, address, country, credit card, bank account, email address and whatever Sony won't reveal) are now in the hands of people you really don't want to have. With basically no security to stop them getting to it.

Sorry I wasn't really thinking in my first post, I was just filled with dread over the whole "my x-box is better than your ps3 because.." bunfight kicking off.

Due to past experiences I am quite hot on keeping tabs on my "identity" so may have appeared somewhat blase. However if Sony are found to have been as negligent as suggested in those articles then they deserve the sh*tfest coming there way over the next few months.

I suppose there may be a silver lining (scant consolation right now, of course) in that they could take this opportunity to just overhaul PSN, provide a better service, even a subscription service akin to x-box live.

As for hackers, they're always going to attack companies that want to keep their IP closely guarded, and I'm sure those PSJailbreak chaps who are being taken to court by Sony "have absolutely no idea who is behind this your honour"...

I think I recently went prestige for the 6th time, so will be royally p*ssed off if I lose that, not to mention the platinum trophy I got on FF13... Fingers crossed they haven't lost everything, and it was just copied off the servers...

 

Safe according to Sony http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/28/qa-2-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/

Good news:

http://au.playstation.com/psn/news/articles/detail/item369505/PlayStation-Network-Restoration-Update/

They plan to have it up by the 31st of may now.....

They plan to have it up by the 31st of may now.....

That's the complete network.

PSN is due back on in "the next few days".

That's the complete network.

 

PSN is due back on in "the next few days".

Does that mean I can abuse 12 year olds again?

Does that mean I can abuse 12 year olds again?

hmmm.

Starting to **** me off this, from a SOE side of things.

off work for 2 weeks with dodgy knee and was hoping to pwn some newbs...but alas no

This has been awful; really awful. Its like being forced to come off crack.

Could we get back on topic please - abusing 12 year olds.

Thanks.

If the network isn't back on by Tuesday i'll be sad.

This has been awful; really awful. Its like being forced to come off crack.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have felt that way.

is there a date yet?

is there a date yet?

Rumours that it's re-enabled for developers and should be fully back up by 31st... 31st of which month though!?

Would have expected some parts back by now :-S

Pathetic, Im having to struggle to resist getting an xbox

Pathetic, Im having to struggle to resist getting an xbox

That's the hardest thing to take from all this...that I've actually considered getting an xbox... Shocking, just shocking...

Update has failed 4 times so far

Mine has done 2 updates and saying Im up to date but still cant login...

Mines updated but can't login either. Apparently they've finished switching on north America so we we probably be next...

i am up-to-date now.

apparently it is meant to prompt us to reset our password at some point

i am up-to-date now.

 

apparently it is meant to prompt us to reset our password at some point

Apparently once we are able to sign in it will force us too. Rumours about 6pm tonight going around for Europe