PSN Hack Info

Update on PlayStation Network and Qriocity


+ Posted by Patrick Seybold // Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media




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.
<blockquote>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:

1. Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
   
2. Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
   
3. 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 92834-6790
You 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; or www.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</blockquote>

Hackers could have stolen the credit card details of 77million PlayStation users, admits Sony






By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:58 AM on 27th April 2011

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• Personal data of millions of users worldwide stolen
  
• Access to PlayStation Network was suspended a week ago, but Sony only revealed details of data theft today
  
• Fury as Sony announces breach in blog post just hours after launching tablets at high-profile event
  

The credit card details of 77million PlayStation users could have been
stolen during one of the largest Internet thefts in history, Sony admitted today.The Japanese firm suffered a massive breach in its online video game network last week
that allowed the names and addresses of the users to be stolen in a hacking attack that could cost the company billions.Access
to the PlayStation network was suspended last Wednesday, but the
company only revealed the true extent of the data breach today.A
post on a Sony blog said hackers obtained user names, passwords,
logins, security questions and, potentially, credit card numbers.
Scroll down for Sony's full announcement



Massive blow: Sony has admitted that the credit
card details of 77million PlayStation users could have been stolen by
hackers last week





WHAT HAS BEEN STOLEN?


Sony said it believed hackers have obtained the following details from its PlayStation Network users:

• Name
  
• Address details including postcode, city and country
  
• Email address
  
• Date of birth
  
• PlayStation Network / Qriocity passwords and login
  
• Handle / PSN online ID
  

The
online network that allows PlayStation owners to play video games
against one another was shut immediately after the hacking was
discovered on April 19.

A spokesman said it took 'several days of forensic investigation'
after learning of the breach before the company knew consumers' data had
been compromised.

Sony announced the details of
the breach hours after the glitzy launch of a new tablet PC yesterday -
and users reacted furiously after Sony made its hacking announcement in a
low-key manner on a company blog.
One said: 'If you have compromised my credit information, you will never receive
it again. The fact that you've waited this long to divulge this information to your customers is deplorable. Shame on you.'

Mystery still surrounds who is responsible - as the primary suspect, the Anonymous group has denied all responsibility.

More...

• A split from the norm: Sony unveils its twin-screen tablet that opens like a book - but will it take a bite out of Apple?
  
• Laying down the gauntlet: YouTube to challenge iTunes supremacy with launch of on-demand movie service
  
• We don't track, says Steve Jobs as details emerge of Apple patent to create searchable map based on iPhone owners' locations
  
• Smartphone and laptop users who connect to Wi-Fi in public 'risk having their credit card details stolen'
  

Alan
Paller, research director of the SANS Institute, said the breach may be
the largest theft of identity data information on record.
Children with accounts established by their parents also might have had their data exposed, Sony said.
Sony said it saw no evidence that credit card numbers were stolen, but warned users it could not rule out the possibility.



Anger: PlayStation users are furious that Sony
announced details of the hacking in a single blog post... just hours
after launching two new tablet PCs at a glitzy, high-profile event in
Tokyo yesterday





True extent revealed: Sony has taken a week to
admit that the personal details of million of PlayStation users have
been stolen. Sony boss Ken Kutaragi (right) and the firm's U.S. CEO Kaz
Hirai launch the PS3 in 2005





Game off: The PlayStation Network first went down last Wednesday






'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,' Sony said.
Analysts said that while Sony
has notified customers of the breach, it had still not provided
information on how user data might have been compromised.
'This
is a huge data breach,' said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael
Pachter, who estimated Sony generates $500million in annual revenue
from the service.'The bigger issue with Sony is how will the hacker use
the info that has been illegally obtained?'
Sony said it had hired an 'outside recognised security firm' to investigate.
The
company said user account information for the PlayStation Network and
its Qriocity service users was compromised between April 17 and April
19.

Mr Paller said Sony probably did not pay enough
attention to security when it was developing the software that runs its
network. In the rush to get out innovative new products, security can
sometimes take a back seat.'They have to innovate
rapidly. That's the business model,' Mr Paller said. 'New software has
errors in it. So they expose code with errors in it to large numbers of
people, which is a catastrophe in the making.'




Game paused: Sony has admitted that 'external intrusion' - or hacking - has led to the shutdown of PlayStation Network





Game off: The PlayStation Network first went down last Wednesday


He suspected the hackers entered the network by taking over the PC of
a system administrator, who had rights to access sensitive information
about Sony's customers.

They likely did that by sending the
administrator an email message that contained a piece of malicious
software that got downloaded onto his or her PC.
The outage is affecting gamers worldwide, who use the network to play video games against friends
online, stream movies and shop.
Gamers can still play on the site but they cannot challenge others to play with them - a major component of the network.
Patrick Seybold, Sony's senior director of corporate
communications and social media, released an online post apologising for the outage, and admitting the breach of security.
He said: 'An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation
Network and Qriocity services.
'We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once
again thank you for your patience.'



We didn't do it: Members of the hackers group
Anonymous, with their trademark masks, at an event in Los Angeles. The
group has denied all responsibility for the Sony shutdown





Popular: More than 50million PS3 consoles have been sold worldwide

Sony said that it had shut the network down voluntarily 'in order to
conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure
operation of our network services going forward'.
But the statement made it clear that a hacker or hackers were instrumental in the network's shutdown.
The
finger of suspicion pointed to the Anonymous group, which has publicly
vowed vengeance for the company taking legal action against two hackers,
including George Hotz.
But the group, which also has connections to WikiLeaks, has said it had nothing to do with the intrusion.In a statement on its website, Anonymous said: 'For once we didn't
do it.'It went on to accuse Sony of 'taking advantage of Anonymous'
previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact
that the outage is actually an internal problem with the company's
servers'.While there is clearly work being done from outside, Experts are starting to believe that Anonymous is telling the truth.
PC
World's Keir Thomas said the phrasing Sony used - talking of an
'external intrusion' - indicated that the attack wasn't a Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which is one of Anonymous' most popular
weapons. He wrote:
'Instead, this seems to be an individual breaking into the network and
this is probably why it's taking so long to clean-up - Sony has to trace
every corner of their systems affected by the hacker and repair it or
restore files.'Sony has not said when users could expect to have their network back.SONY'S BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT IN FULL


Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services.We
don’t have an exact date to share at this moment as to when we will
have the services turned on, but are working day and night to ensure it
is as quickly as possible.We
are currently working to send the following message via email to all of
our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal
information as a result of this malicious attack on our servers, so
please look for this information via email as well.





Please note that we are as upset as you are regarding this attack and
are going to proceed aggressively to track down those that are
responsible.


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, recognised 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 unauthorised person has obtained the following information that
you provided: name, address (city, state / province, zip or postal
code), country, email address, birth date, PlayStation Network /Q
riocity passwords 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
authorised a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect
to your dependent may have been obtained.
While
there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we
cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card
data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we
are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code)
and expiration date may also 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, tax identification
or similar 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 or similar types of reports.
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 check www.eu.playstation.com/psnoutage should you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment Teams