It sucks for me, but I'm pretty impressed with their skills. I'm not sure this is the most effective way to promote freedom of information, but maybe it is. It seems to me that this will just force Sony to work harder to protect their coding (or whatever it is), and that will likely drive up the cost of PlayStation's services. I wonder if Sony could sustain a profit on PlayStation if the information were really as free as Anonymous wants.
Im really not even sure what the hell their gripe is about, but I will say they have some serious skills to butt-pummel Sony the way they just have and still not get caught.
Not sure if serious? From what (admittedly little) I've read, I thought they are pissed at Sony for not letting players hack their software to use their PS3s to their liking. But if they are stealing the credit card info of random people, then that may be a different story. I saw something about that, but that struck me as Sony trying to convince people to stop modifying their systems by using scare tactics.
So you're going to take everything that ANONYMOUS has to say as gospel, but Sony is using scare tactics?
It's not Annon, it's just a bunch of people with a certain type of homebrew software. http://www.1up.com/news/rampant-piracy-blame-psn-downtime "The truth is, there was a new CFW (custom firmware) released known as Rebug ([link removed]). It essentially turns a retail console into a dev console (not fully, but gives you a lot of the same options that usually dev's only have access to). Anyway, this new CFW was quickly figured out to give CFW users access to the PSN network again via the dev networks. With a little manipulation of the URL's through a proxy server you could get your hacked console back online. Not that big of a deal, right? Well, it also turns out that some people over at NGU found out that you could provide fake CC# info and the authenticity of the information was never checked as you were on Sony's private developer PSN network (essentially a network that Sony trusted). What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content. Sony realizing the issue here shut down the network." The only thing Annon did was shut down a few Sony sites a few weeks ago.
Anonymous is citing their own motivations, whereas Sony is either implicitly speculating as to someone else's motivations or just giving out a warning. The first one deserves a lot more credence. Not to mention that it's undeniable that it benefits Sony if people do indeed stop messing around with their systems.
Received an E-Mail from PSN: Valued PlayStation(R)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 rebuilding 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 website 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 =================================== LEGAL "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks and "PS3" and "PlayStation Network" are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (C) 2011 Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC. Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, CA 94404
So you are taking a bunch of hackers words. Not saying Sony is right either but to just assume that this hacker group is all saints and fighting the good fight is wrong too. Who is to say what they will do with that info, they could sell it to the highest bidder.
I never assumed it. I just said that I was more inclined to believe them, based on the reasons I mentioned previously.
Sony goes to great efforts to make all of their shit incompatible with anything as well as copyrighting and DRM'ing software/music/videos/etc. Funny how the security on something as important as MILLIONS OF CREDIT CARD NUMBERS is stored in plain-text. I fucking hate sony yet people continue to pay for their overpriced bullshit.
Annoyed with the whole sony thing(which really is pissing me off), i went out and bought myself an xbox. gotta say im really digging it, iv been missing out on this for years. im still keeping my ps3 for the blueray and exclusives but i think ill be making the xbox my primary system. anyone out there who as an xbox my gamertag is jetfan71. feel free to add
I don't feel like reading through this entire thread, but did they say it was stored in plain text? If so, that's extremely retarded. If not, I would have to assume they were encrypted. The sentence makes it seem even more likely that it was encrypted. Why else would they have been able to identify every other piece of information as certainly stolen, but not credit card info, and say that it's possible they got that too. Seems to me they had it encrypted but are concerned that it's possible the hackers could potentially figure out the encryption keys.
I hope they don't spend my $5 on my prepaid CC that used for PSN. Anyone who uses anything besides a prepaid for online things is foolish.
