Please see below for an official statement from Sony on the situation regarding the PSN. This has been copied in whole as to not miss out any important information.
“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 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; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at 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 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; orwww.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”
Source: US PS Blog
TURRICAN-808
I hope the hacker slips up and gets caught :)
Foxhound_Solid
Lets make it 300 :-)
Tuffcub
THIS.. IS.. AMASSIVESECURITYBREACH!
Bilbo_bobbins
This is one major fuck up by Sony, I for one will not be putting my details on PSN again. I now have to ring my bank, cancel my card and wait for a new one. Never again Sony you bunch of useless fuckers.
Foxhound_Solid
You dont have to go that far. Just call the bank and make them aware. Simples.
Bilbo_bobbins
I have already, but I wont be using PSN again. They are the first big company to have my details stolen from. It will now be PSN cards if I did buy anything from there again.
freezebug2
Worrying times ahead, I am just hoping that the Q&A that Sony have released can give a glimmer of hope to some when they stated in Q7 that people affected will/have been E-Mailed, so I’m guessing that they knew at the point of switch off who’s details were leaked and possibly who’s were not…*checks inbox again*
http://faq.en.playstation.com/cgi-bin/scee_gb.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?locale=en_GB&p_faqid=5593
Demibeard
My ‘US’ account has received an e-mail, although there was no Credit Card linked to it. It was sent at 05:49 this morning.
Tuffcub
Hmm so if we dont get an email, we havent had our details hacked?
shields_t
I’ve just gone through all my online accounts which use the same email address and password and reset them.
Better to be safe than sorry.
Personally I wouldn’t hold off on getting the email, might be another week!
Demibeard
It’s a nice thought, I just wish they could be a bit more definite regarding who’s details has been obtained.
freezebug2
As I said, glimmer of hope, there’s not much else at the moment to hope for in this mess.
Tuffcub
Wow.. it goes all the way up to 11 :)
Klart
Terrible… just plain terrible. The hacks of course, but Sony’s handling as well.
I expected better security (especially after announced attacks!) and better PR from Sony (why wait a week before saying something?).
Origami Killer
Was such a promising year for sony and playstation with the exclusives released and yet to be and then this has just ruined it for them :/ i dont blame sony, as peole have said there are hack attempts everyday, they r bound to get through one time or another, all sony needs now is theyre loyal fan base to have some more patience, wait til the situation drvelops then just show that we are gonna still use psn :)
freezebug2
Agreed, I like the PSN and PS3 gaming so I’ll carry on with that format, I have no intentions of giving up on them. The same would apply if I was keen on XBOX or Ninty gaming.
TURRICAN-808
So how does this work now, if you get a SONY email does that mean your details have been swiped, if you don’t get a Sony email then you’re OK?
freezebug2
Well, Q5 and Q6 indicate a possibility that all users could be affected. I just found it strange that they refer to “those or these users” affected, so there could be a possibility that there are only some people affected being informed with an E-Mail.
Just speculation really, but who knows, we can only hope!
theberzerka
I’m confused, what exactly am I meant to be doing right now? Reading all these comments is freaking me out.
I’m too stressed already to be dealing with this crazy situation.
matthangzhou
If anyone still has any questions or concerns then you should check out the Official Sony FAQ:
http://faq.en.playstation.com/cgi-bin/scee_gb.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?locale=en_GB&p_faqid=5593
TURRICAN-808
Thanks