Tongues are, as you’d expect, wagging. Every social network on the internet is asking what’s up with the PlayStation Network, and the silence from camp Sony is, figuratively, deafening.
Nobody outside of the adamantine walls (lined as they are with the glistening carcasses of PSPgo consoles) is saying very much, and people are getting annoyed, anxious, worried – some have even switched allegiance and splashed out on a 360. Or so they say.
So, what’s going on? Well, naturally, we don’t know either, but we’ve been watching the web over the last day or so and have collated what seem to be the three most popular ideas and thoughts.
The network has been DDoS’d – this, a concentrated traffic assault, doesn’t seem likely. The PSN immediately tells you the thing is off ‘for maintenance’ and so suggests that, from a layman’s perceptive sure, that the actual network is bobbing along nicely. It is, apparently, just the actual sign-in authentication process that’s currently offline, something echoed by the fact that pre-started downloads continue to zip by in the background.
Besides, Anon have already said this isn’t anything to do with them.
The PSN has been hacked – this seems more likely, but hopefully not what’s going on. If customer details were compromised Sony would surely have said by now, it has been a few days – at least that’s our hope. Other thoughts related include Trophies being reset and download counts being wiped – massively unlikely – we’re pretty sure Sony knows what they’re doing in terms of backups.
Hackers found a way to get free games on the Store – this holds a bit of weight as the most likely. Despite having access to a debug PS3, this one’s new to us, but we’ve heard on Twitter and a few forums that you can grant PSN credit so that testers and so on can grab games without handing over real money, on the development version of the network.
The PSN on debug machines doesn’t require any sort of fund transaction, fake or otherwise, but according to a post on NeoGAF, it might be something to do with authenticating licences for full game packages (which can be downloaded). This authentication system may have been compromised over the last week or so, and Sony have locked off the PSN to get this fixed, especially if the methods have become public.
Some people on Twitter are asking whether payment card details have been compromised, without answer.
The truth is we don’t know what’s going on, and only a very select few do. Whilst Sony are battling to get it fixed (they are, of course, despite the moans: anyone that thinks otherwise has no idea about shares, shareholders and revenue, not to mention public opinion) public updates are few and far between, causing tension and a sense of the unknown.
It’s annoying, yes, but what can we do?
icuyesido
I really do hope it’s back up tomorrow, the last day of the (extra long) weekend for me…
E8_BALL_
one thing is for sure, ill appreciate it alot more when we psn back.
E8_BALL_
*when psn is back. lol
i guess, when we psn back kinda works :)
Kovacs
My smarter than I partner has a theory on the third point. If this is true, would it not have been wiser to just disable the ability to purchase/download on the network while still permitting people to log on and game?
Sony’s lack of communication is damning. If credit card details have been compromised I’ll be joining the class action if anything to make Sony realise that such a gross show of corporate malfeasance is completely unacceptable.
nofi
yep, or lock out anyone that’s suddenly added £1,000 to their wallets…
KeRaSh
If personal data like this would have been leaked, wouldn’t Sony be forced by law to make a public announcement of it? At least that’s what I think we have here in Germany in some form or another…
cc_star
Like I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not fussed if its up or down, its a slight annoyance, but nothing to go overboard about. But Sony’s lack of communication is bordering on unforgivable.
They knew there was ‘external intrusion’ when they flicked the off switch 3 days ago, but they hid behind the maintainence card again.
More than a few reliable sources are saying that PS3 systems running CFW can access the developer network and get ‘free credit’ and turn that into free content, or ‘activate’ pirated content.
What concerns me, is that Sony have had 3 days to come out and say “No customer details including bank card details have been compromised, they are as secure as can be” The fact they haven’t said this means, at worst there could be a possibility that they have been compromised, and even at best it’s extremely arrogant and terrible service not to put people’s minds at rest.
Between the lies last time around, when Anon brought the network down and their announcement was “sporadic maintainence” going back to lies over last year’s leap year bug right up to the lack of info with the current downtime, its speaks volumes that Sony either take their customers for granted & don’t care about them, or they are are just really, really bad at customer service. I wonder if they’ve thought of becoming a gas/electric/mobile phone provider because they’d be really good at being that bad.
E8_BALL_
“No customer details including bank card details have been compromised, they are as secure as can be”
indeed, this surely must be at the forefront of all their customers minds, it is mine.
I worked in retail for nearly 20yrs, so know a bit about cust service & i thought it would’ve been in todays’ earlier announcement, at the very latest.
surley they couldn’t be as bad as the AA & their attempt at a new market, although I don’t know :)
(AA took a beating on watchdog a few nights ago)
AG2297
Your point about “if the CC details have NOT been compromised, then why dont they put peoples mind at rest and say so” is the first comment to actually convince me that, yeah, that really is bad of them.
Before I couldn’t care less if they tell me what the reason was. It’s there problem, it wouldn’t get the network up any sooner and I feel as though it isn’t really my business anyway.
However, as i said, your point regarding CC details is spot on and that is a good example of why they should be explaining more. I hadn’t thought of that!
yogh_wayne
A “Don’t worry, no credit card details were stolen” statement would also say that there actually IS a risk it could happen. Not a thing any company whose system just got hacked would like to imply. But I agree, they should know that many customers are concerned at the moment and provide more information.
Bladesteel
They may not know yet.
One way of doing computer forensics is to simply pull the plug. You can’t trust any part of the system so you need to unplug the disk and analyze them from another machine (that you can trust).
Then they need to reinstall the whole system (which I suspect they are doing now), because they can’t trust any part of it not to have a backdoor left behind.
Then they need to figure out how anyone gained access, and close that hole.
Then they can finally go online, after having sent everyone their new passwords.
The when they finally complete forensics on the drives from before the hack they can (hopefully) issue a statement saying that card info wasn’t compromised.
yogh_wayne
I was wondering if maybe the Steam integration or Qriocity for PSP somehow opened a door for hackers. No idea if that makes sense from a technical point of view, I just thought about it due to the timing with the PSN outage. Anyway, I have enough single player games to keep me busy. As Cb said, I just hope the personal information and credit card details are safe.
teflon
Nah, Steamplay wouldn’t have anything to do with opening doors. Quite a few other games have had separate log in systems for many years. MGS:O had you logging into Konami’s servers, for example.
I think the timing’s just a bit unfortunate, really.
ph3d
why theories?
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/
cc_star
This article is about what the “outside intrusion” is.
Whilst its not known, its now largely suspected to be hacked consoles running custom firmware are able to access the developer network and effectively add free credit to their accounts, activate pirated games and generally get up to no good. Its also not clear if other areas of the network have been accessed in some way (through Sony’s silence) and whether everyone’s personal details are completely safe, perhaps we’ll find out in another 3 days or so if Sony see fit to give us another update.
djhsecondnature
This being the same largely suspected that it was down to an issue at Japan, and then that it was Anon. Just pointing out there a lot of the “suspected” theories have been wrong so far.
skibadee
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/23/latest-update-for-psnqriocity-services/ rebuilding the PSN that is why.
Awayze
Im registered on a hacking website and it’s called “rebug PSN” that allows hacked consoles to play with each other who dont want the latest firmware.
You maybe on to something as on this site I came across a few guides on how to download free paid stuff from PSN.
The site has the MW2 hackers on it who did all the challenge lobbies for MW2, it also has custom ps3 firmware from various devs.
E8_BALL_
@Awayze
& your proud this?
forgive me, i can’t think of any other way to say this, but are you for real!
(not as in real or fake)
SpikeyMikey23
Could he not be just interested in the subject?….
E8_BALL_
@SpikeyMikey23
i considered that, but then surely you’d visit & not create an account.
Kovacs
If it comes back tomorrow and Sony give everyone six months free PS+ access by way if compensation, this is still a public relations disaster. Whoever manages Sony’s customer communication channels needs to realise that this is wholly unacceptable. There is no excuse for not coming out and at least mentioning credit card details by now.
E8_BALL_
If i was ceo, there’d be a few people looking for new jobs, no hesitation.
djhsecondnature
You know, unless it was nothing to do with that in the first place, in which case no “reassurance” is really necessary.
cc_star
Well, that’s even more reason to say something along the lines of: all the details are held securely and were never in any danger.
djhsecondnature
It seems like a redundant statement in my view. Do you want them to confirm that every time the PSN goes down?
I understand peoples worries about their details, but until we hear something relating it, in my book, it means everything’s safe. If anything I’d be more worried if they came out and said “You’re details are safe”, it would sound as if they were unsure.
As I’ve said before, just calls for a bit of patience.
Kovacs
No, I want them to confirm everytime they themselves admit they’ve been hacked.
TURRICAN-808
@Kovacs
You could put that SONY need a new communications director in the PS Blog Ideas Share thingy:
http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/
E8_BALL_
i still think this is a baclash from sonys’ latest court case, either from an individual, or an organised group.
E8_BALL_
*backlash
Danny-c-2k9
50’s: whoa man! TV!
60’s: A man walked on the moon
70’s: yeee mann, let’s smoke some
80’s: wow, 32-bit gaming!
90’s: Bye, bye 20th centuary
00’s: jailbreaks, custom firmwares
10’s: oh no! The worlds gonna end in 2012!
Danny-c-2k9
At least after this Sony may finally use proper encryption! To keep them sad hackers away