If you are not a gamer, or simply a casual player, you may not have heard about the recent breach of Sony’s Playstation Network. In short, the network was infiltrated on April 17th, and the service was completely shut down on the 19th as a precautionary measure. Now, more than a week later services have yet to be restored, but Sony is finally starting to talk a bit more about what happened.
At this point, nobody knows the total extent of the data stolen, but stories are emerging that indicate just about everything that could be accessed was accessed. Sony admits that information such as names, addresses, passwords, and security questions have all been accessed by an unauthorized third party. They have also not completely ruled out the possibility that credit card data has been stolen as well.
It seems the situation has turned from a mere inconvenience to PSN users into a full-blown security and PR nightmare. After a breach like this with so many questions left unanswered, and the gaming network rendered completely useless, we have to ask:
When everything is “fixed” and back to normal, what could Sony possibly do to regain your trust?
>> When everything is “fixed” and back to normal, what could Sony possibly do to regain your trust?
Re-brand and repackage the same shit, then watch the sheep getting sucked in once again.
@cantido
Sorry, spork wins the thread. Your both illogical and seem alarmingly illiterate. I gather this from your failed interpretation of his clearly defined and reasoned arguments.
If you would like to meet somewhere I would be happy to go over his Ideas with you. Make sure you remember your copy of hooked-on-phonics, lest we forget what sound a long “a” or “e” makes.
@jim i agree with you, black hats are dbags, there is no point to be made to steal people’s info or to down a system at others expense. that being said, my degree being in this field, sony should have had proper systems and precautions in place to prevent such an ossue. and this should have nothing to do with some system flame.
“Your both illogical and seem alarmingly illiterate.”
Pot calling the kettle black?
After the DRM rootkit thingy I swore I would not buy Sony products again. I’m quite happy about that decision now.
Karma is a bitch, and so is Sony…
My dead PS3 PSN email account is still getting security breach notices – 2 years after I switched to an xbox 360.
I would wager Sony broke someone else’s favorite toy too…
Wise men say:
私のボールは、企業の野郎を吸う
@anonymous
Criticize my writing skills as you see fit, but at least my reading comprehension level has developed beyond that of a middle schooler.
To give you an example of his logic:
>>”Pot calling the kettle black?”
Kettles are an entirely different product than PS3s Their not even made by the same company!
Can you see how, based on my response, it’s clear that my brain keyed in on the word kettle and it completely annihilated the meaning of what you were trying to convey?
_______________________
Back to the issue at hand though, what really sucks is that PSN is free for normal use. So only the fans looking to support developers or willing to pay for the extra features got shafted by this.
ROFL at the “regain your trust”, it’s sony, they lost any sane person’s trust many years ago now, never to be found again.
Sony could always regain my trust by purchasing me an Xbox360.
what can they do to regain trust ?
Shut the fuck DOWN!
I’m not sure if I’ll ever trust them again. Maybe if they started doing things the way Microsoft does. (Good lord, I never thought I’d say that in my lifetime!)
Oh, and inform all the credit card companies that the breach occurred, and have them automatically monitor accounts and issue new cards if need be.
Dosnt really effect me, not the way I use my PS3
Lets just use a little logic to look at two very possible sides. One, after anonymous launched there attack and shut down the network, greedy hackers saw potential access to personal info. Problem with that being if said party was capable of such attack, they wouldnt have waited untill the initial attack happened due to possible security enhancements. Now the good theory.. Sony implicating a false attack on major scale. Scorched earth tactic if you may. Hackers wanna play with sony… there gonna play back. Obviously, legality is fuzzy with them setteling out of court with Geohot, so attack the network they use. Of course we will never know, but if you think for a sec this isnt possible.. your a tool to society and probably own 5 ishits. Good Day
Google should just buy out the ps3 project and replace the GameOS with Android.
LoL Would be interesting seeing a Google game console.
I have a sneaking feeling with recent issues with game consoles(RRoD and now PSN), That google is somewhere secretly building a gaming console. I bet you it runs on a cloud based system where you pay for access to games instead of going to the store to buy them. Kind of like the Chrome OS netbooks coming out.
Google. Please hire me. LOL
I changed all my passwords the day i noticed it was down.
The problem with most passwords is the restrictions companies demand. This one only allows numbers, this one say you need a combination of numbers.
Security experts say you should use stuff like @#+_*^¨`£ù%(§è!çà but then sometimes the company doesn’t allow that or sometimes the keyboard doesn’t have the needed characters.
Then this one only allows 8 characters and that one only allows above 10 characters.
Passwords requirements should be an ISO and the tips should be standard.
Its all the hacker fault, they pissed because they cant get thier stupid Other OS on the system, then sony takes action against the dumb ace hacker who thought it be an ok idea to do whatever they want and jailbreak the system so you could do what you wanted with it. Sony has the right to do what they want WITH THIER HARDWARE!! You guys dont have a say in shit. If it wasnt for you dumb ace hackers and dumb ace home brewers or whatever you wanna call yourselves getting bored or havuing nothing better to do wiuth your lives this stuff wouldnt happen. Not all the hackers but i bet most of you just mad cuz u cant get ur own way, and just lashing back at sony for taking action against the hacker who jailbroke thier system.
Back in the day of the original consoles we never would have thought something like this would even be possible. The fact that just about every console needs an Internet connection now days is just a lame marketing ploy to get players to spend money, and spend they do.
We where happy when we seen PSN was free, until we found out if you want any of the extras you had to pay, no surprise but still an annoyance. Xbox Live has almost no allure for me besides playing with others, and I can do that at home with 4 controllers.
Hand held’s are a joke anymore with the PSP-GO being a perfect example of how to royally screw over the consumer which I feel pushes more people to go the pirated route.
What I am trying to say I guess is that we can’t put the blame on Sony alone, Those of us who have had to change bank numbers and comb through our console settings to remove information are the ones to blame. We bought them, we put them online, and we willingly put in our information. So far I am lucky, my account has not been accessed yet and I got my stuff changed. But don’t think this will only happen once and only to sony, it is only a matter of time before the WII, DS, Xbox, or any other console ends up in the same predicament. Many of us see ourselves as security conscious geeks, but we seam to forget the most basic practices when it comes to anything outside of our computers.
In closing, it sucks, but at least netflix still works if you press ok, then back a few times. And it has educated many people on why we should not take anything for granted when it comes to security.
Cheers.
@Zypher
Who cares who wins in an internet argument anyhow?
They should reopen http://www.lik-sang.com/ !
Anyway, they won’t regain my trust because I’ve never trusted them. But if they wanted to do something nice, once in their life, it would be to close their door definitely. If we want a crappy company, there’s already Apple, we don’t need a second one.
Here’s what they should do:
*Revamp their security (obviously)
*Bring back otherOS
*Give all accounts from before the incident $5 credit on their accounts as an apology
remove ALL drm from their new products and patch old products that can be patched to remove drm, add support for open products and release a IDE that can directly publish content to their hardware(along with open specifications for other ides)
(one can dream)
also, release all old ps2 games for download via internet directly to harddrive for $5
(ya, one really can dream…)
Crash Bandicoot man, Crash Bandicoot.
@unknown234
Sony’s hardware? Ok, gimme’ my $350 back, ’cause it doesn’t do what I paid for. Do you just not get it because all you want to do is sit and play games? Well, that’s fine- that’s what YOU bought it for. I, on the other hand, purchased it for exactly what it is advertised to do- EVERYTHING.
@unknown234
Oh, and what’s with the insults? ASS is spelled A-S-S.
Just scanned through the posts here.
Why are you all so angry with Sony, and not the f***ing c**ts who attacked Sony ?
And could we please stop idealizing hackers/terrorists !
@Walther
Terrorists? Seriously? Did they crash a plane into the Sony HQ and steal the servers while firing their AK47’s in the air? And look up “Hacker” on Wikipedia.
@unknown234
You are the most obvious troll I have ever seen, and I have been around for while. Go away. Shame on anyone who falls for you.
If Sony would simply ditch the excessive DRM and draconian practices I might actually start buying from them again. I had a PS1 and a Debug Unit PS2. I loved them both literally to death (CD/DVD failures killed them). They were both very good.
@Walther: Are you asking about the rootkit that was installed illegally and without user consent on the computers of people who legally bought certain audio CDs published by Sony Music?(but not on any computers owned by pirates who simply uploaded or downloaded high-quality MP3s of the songs)
Are you referring to the part where they advertised a feature of the Playstation 3 console, then TOLD existing users it would not be removed with a software update, and then REMOVED IT WITH A SOFTWARE UPDATE?(this is called “lying to your customers,” and may fall under certain truth in advertising laws, and I still don’t know why none of the existing lawsuits has pursued this angle)
Are you referring to the fact that on the whole, Sony is attempting to establish that when you pay money to purchase their hardware, that you are not purchasing ownership of the physical hardware, you are purchasing a temporary permit to use that hardware, but the moment you do something Sony doesn’t like with the hardware that you purchased, they can lay a legal smackdown which will ruin your life?
Are you referring to increasingly draconian copy protection schemes which end up ruining the experience of legitimate customers but end up having little or no effect on criminals who steal and pirate their software and media?
Are you referring to the part where Sony claimed to have sufficient security in place to protect users’ private information(including, but not restricted to, login names, account passwords, and credit card billing information) when in fact they apparently had a system in place which was capable of being shut down on a global scale for an extended period of time with no ability to predict when service can be restored, and all user information effectively compromised?
Further, if, as has been suggested, this is actually a deliberate, INTERNAL shutdown of the PSN network, that means that the company is once again lying to their customers and to law enforcement officials, claiming that an external force has hacked their servers which they have actually deliberately shut down in effort to “improve” security.
Face it. Sony is just corrupt.
@Volfram
Thank you for the thorugh list of Sony errors.
I agree with you that all of them are good reasons to hate Sony.
But despite that, most of us still buy their products, and have no problems with them. And I believe no one is forced to buying a PS3 ?
So I still do not get why people treat hackers that break systems and steal my credit card data as heroes ?
… and i do not believe you need physical weapons to be a terrorist,…
F’ing media iDRONES. Hear and believe what they want you to. Dont have a cognitive brain on your own. @ Walther: Your info get stolen? Credit all jacked up? prob not. Not from the ps3 attack at least. Us “hackers” make sure in 5 years your not being told a product is “this” then down the road,(once your money is theirs) its reduced to “that”. Tech is great, but we the people must be able to keep up with major companys so were not eclisped and left with no rights on devices we pay with out pay checks.
@ walther: The term your looking for is “cracker” not hacker. U got some nuts labeling so broadly at HACKaday.
@hackaday, thank you for an awesome site, i didn’t mean to offend anyone :)
I know of the hacker and cracker terms, and the many different defininitions. But anyone who attacks someone elese, is a criminal to me. I know some hackers/crackers say they do it for the common good, and they do it to make the world stronger, i don’t believe that, just as doon’t belive kids get stronger by beating them.
So i’m not sure what I mean,… it just annoys me that criminals are saluted in the media.
@walther: well I don’t buy Sony anymore. I think their hardware is generally good, and more importantly, readily moddable, but the shenanigans their management and corporate higher-ups seem to like pulling merit punishment. The only kind of punishment I can mete out is financial: don’t buy Sony, and spread the word so other people won’t.
I have respect for people who are able to perform forced intrusion into systems and shut them down. Not because I think they’re good, but because I recognize that, usually, they possess a skill set I personally do not have and sometimes wish I did. Like anything, the ability to remotely compromise a system can be used for legal or illegal purposes, good or evil, and ‘good’ and ‘legal’ are not always the same thing.
I don’t see the group that brought down the PSN servers being praised anywhere in the media, personally. The fact is, they’re criminals, and they have caused harm to thousands of previously uninvolved people. I happen to approve in this case, because it’s hurting Sony’s finances and reputation more than pretty much any of their customers, and it also furthers some of my ideological agendas, like displaying some of the critical weaknesses in cloud-based computing(a weakness which happens to be the prime reason I avoid cloud computing), but that doesn’t mean I think the guys who did it should go free. By all appearances, they won’t, but hopefully, neither will Sony.
Even after all the negitive fall out sony is facing with this. Its still my belief they are the owner of this misshap. There going to let the media run wild with this, turning drone public into hacker haters(lookin at you Walther). Ill bet in months to follow sony will come out saying no credit info has been compromised. And Walther, if people without evil intent can show companys there security sucks, it cuts down on identity theft. Basic logic.
@Walther Horrible analogy compareing a kid to companys that have billions, jets, outsourced labor, and ceo’s with 5’000 coat racks. We need to beat these companys to show them where they lack. if not, someone with much eviler intent will do it for us. Its to easy to be agenst hackers becaus of medias tainted portrayal. Please quit backing up such ignorant ideas.
opps $5,000 coat racks… absent ($)can really mute a point.
I see a whole lot of whining about bullshit. Seriously, if you’ve trusted a corp with your CC number and personal information, you have to be ready to accept the risk that it may become compromised at some point. Secure your shit properly (small limit online-only CC, spam-dump email address, long random character passwords) and you’ll really have nothing to bitch about. If you can’t be bothered to wear a rubber, you can’t whine that you got the clap.
I know this is a pointless discussion, but I have nothing better to do.
I don’t think people are necessarily evil just because they have money, or a shitload of coat racks ;)
I do however find it amazing that people think _all_ members of hacker communities are good, and that not a single one of them have cruel intentions. And that all the methods and software they develop can and will only be used for good by unicorns.
I think hackers should stop attacking and get a hobby. This way we can reserve the word hacker for people that turn IKEA tables into microwaves, and call people that break into other peoples houses for criminals, or terrorist if they compromise 70M credit cards.
@macw: The first Sony shitstorm involved the planned obsolescence feature in the original walkman, in the 1980s. The headphone plug was soldered in with a quickly degrading solder, to ensure that a new unit had to be bought almost immediately after the waranty ran out.
if you dont let people get 999.999.999 cr on gt5 with an easy option for people with friends and a job then this is what happens,in my opinion.
any way the machine is overated mine keeps begging for a ethernet cable which i aint got (mobile bband) so most of the functionality is lost befor iv even started,as it turns out as xmas presents go its a noisy dvd player with a big empty harddreve that was expensive and doesnt stack well with other equipment.
@walther
“hacker” is a missused term. it refers to some one who hacks their hardware LEGALLY to do hat they want. many people remove the term LEGALLY and then many people who are criminals are labeled as hackers. so what needs to happen is the corrupt society of america needs to be fixed, starting with the CEOs of large corporations.
/end the FUCKING RANT THAT SAYS YOU FUCKING CEOs NEED tO GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASS ANd stop aLL THIS FUCKING BUllshit, not jusT SONY. (stares at apple, panasonic, tracfone, and many others)
wow, apple keyboard starting to fail on the shift key lol
@walther: Nobody thinks all hackers are good any more than anybody thinks everyone at 4Chan is good.
Cuppa “T” anyone? :)
I’d like to see Sony throw in the towel and sell out to Apple.
Many of you seem to remember the XCP/rootkit fiasco, but @cantido seems to be unaware that XCP code was ITSELF “stolen” by Sony/First4Internet. So much for fugging “IP”.
“Sony BGM” is a distinction without a difference – 1st4INet was a Sony creation.
Any members of the network get Sony’s e-mail yet?
Well, looks like Sony was hacked into again…. successfully I might add.
I can’t say why they did it for sure, and I can’t say I am all sorry to the people who are at risk (look at the day and age we live in) but my opinion is that the users are pissed, and sony had this a long time coming.
Just my two cents.
CHOW!
Oh, and I own a first gen PS3 and love it for what it can do…. I bought it fair and square.
If the online play doesn’t come back?
Pfft, satellite net sucks for that ;P
My second cent.
END OF LINE
Sony did it
Oh karma, you BITCH.
Trust? like it matters anymore. You shouldnt even trust your own bank.
Other OS? it was more of a novelty than anything useful.
Ps3 clusters? PLEASE. Linux on a gamming console? For what?
Everyone loses. Sony loses. Consumer Loses. Hackers Lose too.
The one good thing this situation brought on is a huge lesson not to jerk around your consumers.