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
Moakesice
I wonder whats in tomorrows PSN store update….oh no wait a minute ….
PoisonedMonkey
A database of everyone’s card details, but it’s only for PS+ members.
nemesisND1derboy
Hahahaha! Perfect :P
TURRICAN-808
So, this is the worst week in SONY’s history, ever!
Its gonna take a monumental amount of PR and advertising to get over this. If SONY or their subsidiary companies are on the Stock Exchange, this event is going to batter them!
Change our PSN password and check bank accounts on a daily basis ! THE DEFACATION HAS HIT THE OSCILLATION !!
fattyuk
Not every playstation user is as narrow-minded as some to kick up a fuss because online hasn’t worked for a week. I know plenty of people who don’t give too shades if psn hasn’t been working
E8_BALL_
different article.
Sympozium
Sonys had worst, but this must be the worst for SCE
Lyts1985
Nice one Sony, you managed to cause the missus to hate my favourite hobby even more than she already did…! Oh and you handed some random numbnuts every personal detail on me, right down to, quite possibly, my dogs name… Bloody fantastic(!)
Samiro05
Does this mean that you’ve just hinted at everyone that your recovery passwords are to do with the names of your family members excluding your dog?
Hehe, I agree with the totally unnecessary fuel to the fire that is people calling the consoles stupid and what-not.
gazzagb
It’s unlikely they would have managed to get every PSN user’s details, but it’s still a major c**k up from Sony.
enroene
I maybe wrong but I think this the hackers way of getting back at sony and turning their customers against them.I hope they didn’t get cc info and other personal info ,this is not looking good.all because a guy released a master system key.And still haven’t seen Linux running on the jailbroken PS3’S.Very sad situation.
billyboy88
silly question i only have to get a new card dont i not a whole new bank account??
colossalblue
just check with your bank if there’s been any weird transactions. The most you’ll need is a freeze on your card and a new one issued – which is almost always free of charge.
Any fraudulent charges that people do get will most likely be refunded too. Not a huge cause to panic too much, just check up and be cautious in the future (as you should be anyway ;) )
cc_star
Checking your bank account won’t help when it comes to ID fraud.
That type of fraud just needs your name, address & DoB
E8_BALL_
so apart from changing our names by dpoll & moving house were kinda buggered?
PoisonedMonkey
Many credit card companies offer ID theft protection too, I’ll be looking into that tomorrow…
MaD dOctoR 79
well then, I guess we all need to go and get eye and finger transplants now then don’t we…
FFS calm down people.
Samiro05
Blizzard do this to me all the time on WoW though but I think it’s pretty much my fault if my account details get stolen. I feel very sorry for Sony and my self as I hold them in such high regard. I think it’s outrageous that no one is helping Sony, I think if it wasn’t anything to do with Games then people would take more notice and people would be jailed and fined millions for the damage they cause in terms of reputation and possible fraud.
F the bankers and their injection of money, Sony needs it to kick some hacker butt.
TURRICAN-808
You said no one is helping Sony, SONY have hired a “recognised security firm” to help them. The next time you make a transcation with a credit/debit card through the PSN, it will be safer than before. Thats probably the most important positive aspect of the external intrusion event.
Topov81
I tend to use a selection of 4 different passwords for my online activity, however I used all of them on my UK, US, Hong Kong and Japanese PSN so I’m well and truly buggered if they’ve got all of them :(
tottimanps3
I AM NOT HAPPY
Charles Logan
Well, shit.