In the wee hours of this morning a tipster contacted TSA, as well as PSU, with information as to why the PSN has been down for the last few days. Obviously we can’t validate the accuracy of this source, although screen grabs were provided showing his private conversation, apparently with a SCEE employee that he claims to have a close connection with.
This conversation yielded potentially new information, with the tipster stating that there was a “sustained LOIC attack on the PSN Store” and “a concentrated attack on PS servers holding account info”. We’re told that Admin Dev accounts were breached and the PSN was shut down by Sony, who are now in the process of restoring backups to new servers.
We’ve seen equally unsupported claims elsewhere that personal details, passwords and log history were breached, as well as the encrypted files storing credit card info. Apparently those card details are still secure because of the way they are encrypted but users’ personal info might have been attained during the attack. Obviously this is not confirmed and is based on hearsay but if true it is quite worrying.
Obviously this is all based on the claims of a source whose identity is unclear. As such, we’d advise you to be cautious about the validity. If true though, it could have very serious ramifications.
We would advise against anyone panicking based on these vague claims but there is some cause for concern and we would urge SCE to help set people’s minds at rest by making a more detailed official statement which either confirms or clearly denies the loss of data.
Source: Tipster
TheSpaceCowboy
How much do you think Sony are losing on this fiasco?
squashme
id say its in the billions of dollars plus there gonna have to give their customers a free game or dlc to make up for it thatl cost em alot
John Malcolm
How about one month’s worth of PSN+ for everybody? It would be a good way to (a) get people on-side again and (b) let people try out the + service; they (Sony) would probably get a few sales/members from it…
John Malcolm
That’s PS+, not PSN+. You can tell I’m not a member/subscriber…
cc_star
@sqaushme
I’m not sure they do have give anything, online gaming is included in the price and a few days out because of a security hole and its repair isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things.
However some people are paying for services they can’t use like LoveFilm/Netflix/MusicUnlimited/Qriocity (maybe Hulu+ and a few others… I don’t know) These customers need more than a corporate-spin apology, whether its credit or a months free something I’m not sure, but I do think an apology won’t be sufficient.
@John Malcom
Not a bad idea to giveaway a free months PS+ because it doesn’t really cost Sony anything. customers would benefit from a free months use of a a game or 2 & a few minis, but if they want to continue using it they will have to pay, turning the ‘goodwill gesture’ into a revenue opportunity which is what most retailers do when they give you store credit (which many people add to to get something they want) Existing PS+ customers could just get the ‘free’ month added to the end of their subscription
People would be happy because they’ve got something, Sony would be happy because that something hasn’t cost them anything & could turn into increased revenue opportunities
Not a bad idea. But I certainly don’t believe Sony have to do anything for the short term lack of online gaming (premium services is different tho) but many (all) companies usually give a goodwill gesture when things go wrong through no fault of the customers so it would be odd if Sony didn’t do anything more than a blog post
squashme
you have to be signed into PSN to use lovefilm which is very strange considering its got nothing to do with PSN
GTRsannin
And some people want to defend hackers those people are just ridiculous this is what hackers always do they srew everything up for everybody and i think peoples bank info is safe i mean they would have informed us if it weren’t so
Watchful
Complete and utter speculation on my part, but given the timing of the PSN being switched off I can’t help thinking that it may be the SteamWorks integration that opened up a hole.
Having been on the PC for a while now SteamWorks network traffic will be well understood by ‘interested’ parties and Sony will have had to open a portal into their formerly closed PSN to let it in.
Maybe someone with evil/mischievous intent (or a rogue and slightly crazy AI) used the newly opened portal to find their way in.
Like I say, pure speculation, but I find the timing curious.
E8_BALL_
a portal, or portal 2 :)
E8_BALL_
dammit (just woke)
*portal or 2
Big
I suffered from the YLOD so was busy putting my details into a friends system on Tuesday. The funny thing was it didn’t recognise my Switch Card, i tried it twice and it still failed. Of course I didn’t think too much of it at the time. So had the system been hacked at this stage or had Sony started the lockdown or was it part of the LOIC probs?
Anyway, I’ve got my replacement PS3 up and running now, my 500gB HDD is in and restored. And guess what? No PSN to download my 70 odd games that I’d collected…. GRRRRR!! Hopefully the new PSN will be the stone house with automated gun turrets (bit like aliens) and all those features they wished they’d implemented 1st time around.
squashme
have you seen the Japanese playstation website they get daily updates while we get nothing
fattyuk
Would somebody like a lollipop :(
from what I can see the eu blog has had daily updates aswell, and on twitter :|
TURRICAN-808
Apparently the PSN might be partly up and running on May 3rd