PSN Hack Details: Personal Information Compromised, Possibly Credit Cards - Change your Passwords

Sony have come out with details on the PlayStation Network hack...bad news. Personal data has been compromised, and they're not sure whether credit card details have been too. Change any passwords that you have that are similar to your PSN account, keep an eye on your bank statements to be safe.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/04/26/psnqriocity-service-update/

I can't believe that they waited a week before telling people this. I've used the service a fair bit before but mainly preferred my 360 and Xbox Live - and abandoned my PS3 aside as my amazing media player - but recently I let my XBL run out with the intent of switching most of my HD gaming to PS3 and PSN. Don't think that'll be happening anymore.

What are going to be long-reaching effects of this? I think it's too early to say that this means the end of PlayStation, but I certainly think it's a huge, huge bash against the brand, and I'm not sure if it's ready to survive another backlash after it took a couple of years to recover from the misjudgements going into the PS3 launch.

I'm not pissed at sony for getting hcked. It could potentially happen to any service, retailer etc. I'm pissed that it's taken nearly a week to get some confirmation from Sony of what was actually occurred.

I've gone a checked all the passwords I can. The bank card they have on file has been replaced twice since I last bought anything so that's safe for me.

Sony really just need to rebuild customer trust right now. It took long to get this information out there, when really everybody should have been warned of the potential dangers as soon as possible after the breach. And now t has happened once, it could happen again

Whoevers doing this has a serious grudge against sony. And it's apparently not Anonymous.

This may truly be the ApocalyPS3


( Edited 26.04.2011 23:48 by Lrrr )

Wow, this is some serious shit. Even though I don't like Sony, I feel for all the affected gamers out there. Hope all turns out well for you guys.

Uh, yeah. Take your time Sony.

My passwords on my two PSN ID's are different to my normal passwords.

As for bank details, fuck. No emails to say i've purchased shit without knowing.

Did I mention, we can't sign in to change our PSN details?

im pissed at sony!! the networks been down a WEEK and it just now they are mentioning that our personal information may have been compromised.

ill be monitoring my bank account, anything suspicious..... sue!!

also they saying the network wont be back up for probably another week!! taking the piss ( pardon the french)

I feel for Sony because no one deserves this. But yes, it's a bit strange they never said sooner that bank details could be compromised. I just hope everything gets sorted out smoothly and it all gets back up and running again soon. Missing my online fix.

That's a big deal. Shocking that they've waited so long. Wonder if any people figured out the hard way that their bank account was compromised before Sony decided to actually let people in on what was happening.

its not just credit/debit card details. its also peoples personal information, so theres the possibility of identity theft. they have royally screwed up!

I think its terrible, its the fact that they waited a week, but maybe that was because they where unsure of it themselves. They released a statement that security codes weren't released (back of the cards) so thats some consolation, its just the fact that they have the rest of your details.

And to think, all this happened because they removed linux as an operating system from their console, it would of been compromised much earlier otherwise. Sony really don't need this, especially when the console is now coming into its own. I'm glad that I pay for xbox live in some ways, though I think it should be standard, there have never really been any major problems with microsofts service. Then again, this is sony's first attempt at an on-line OS unlike microsoft who make them for a living, there will be a learning curve. :/

Yeah, no company stores the security number from the back of cards as a precaution, but it's still not verified either way whether the card details were compromised or not. I think they're covering themselves on that front more than anything; I'll keep my eye on my bank account (as I do every day anyway), but I'm more concerned about the risk of identity fraud from the personal data than anything else right now.

US Senate demands answers; tells Sony to offer 2 years free access to credit reporting services and insurance to possible financial consequences of identity theft.

Senate's letter to Sony.

I'm not sure they'll go quite that far...

I kept laughing at Sony for shutting down its PSN but now that personal info has been compromised, this is some serious stuff. Now I feel pretty bad for the innocent gamers.

I'm sure they will wriggle out of any problems people have.

They for sure have lost alot of the consumers trust in the company. I know i've lost a bucketload for them.

Conversation between the hackers:

http://pastie.org/private/erihhjd2ccvj0lkmzbtuw

Marzy said:
OMG IT'Z ALL SONIES FAULT! I HATE THAM FOREVAR!

Although this doesn't affect me much because I've never bought anything off of PSN and my Brother's PS3 was stolen last week, it must be extremely annoying for everyone that uses PSN, especially since Sony have been unprofessional about it i.e. not telling anyone about the actual problems until quite late into it.

But I think the Hacker(s) are worse, what's the point of Hacking a big network that millions use unless you really want to piss alot of people off, and on top of that, steal their details as well.

You've summed up what the point of it is in the same sentence, Stu. The details are possibly what they wanted, though there were also people that hacked PSN to download as much content as they wanted for free in the days prior, so it could have been that en masse that forced Sony to flick the switch.

Marzy said:
OMG IT'Z ALL SONIES FAULT! I HATE THAM FOREVAR!

If they have as poor security as seems to have been implied - passwords stored in plain text, distinguishing whether content is paid for or not by changing a parameter in the URL - then yes, it IS their fault. Even if that's disregarded, the length of time it took for them to put out a full statement when there are this many personal details involved - including possibly credit card details, though the media has predictably been running around claiming that card details are definitely nicked when that isn't true - is not good.

Mason said:
I can't believe that they waited a week before telling people this.

Lrrr said:
I'm pissed that it's taken nearly a week to get some confirmation from Sony of what was actually occurred.

MiiWiiKing said:
im pissed at sony!! the networks been down a WEEK and it just now they are mentioning that our personal information may have been compromised.

Azuardo said:
it's a bit strange they never said sooner that bank details could be compromised.

These. Just got off the phone, had my card and PIN number blocked. They're sending me a fresh set. Never again will I put my card details into PSN. From now on, I will buy PSN points cards. This will undoubtedly lead to me buying less stuff from the service.

One upside to all this - people have been playing games other than Call of Duty on their PlayStations.

How can I put this?

I've been shopping, trading and subscribing to things electronically and using email for a decade, and havn't once been robbed or scammed online. I doubt a phishing email has ever reached my inbox in the 5 years I've used gmail.

Out and about I've lost cash and cards by my own clumsiness, I've been pickpocketed and I've been punched in the face by a random child in a busy street. Cars almost kill be every day.

What's happened here is that a company that I tolerate in order to play a handful of games has ballsed up their security and handled it in a cowardly and pathetic fashion (even if they claim innocense on the timing of the discovery and disclosure, I've yet to even get an email about this). It's a PR disaster. They'll suffer massively and quite rightly so. People will need to get their cards replaced and change some passwords.

That said, the biggest thing to come out of this will be that a lot of people will wake up and realise that they shouldn't be lazy with their passwords etc, and a load of other companies will check their own security making everything even safer.

When you do stuff online you take risks, but if you just conduct yourself in a reasonably sensible way these risks are so minute that worrying about them is absurd.

So I won't be ditching PSN, even though I barely use it. Sony will get fucked up enough anyway, and in the grand scheme of things this whole thing isn't that big a deal.

( Edited 27.04.2011 23:59 by Raff )

Mason said:
Even if that's disregarded, the length of time it took for them to put out a full statement when there are this many personal details involved - including possibly credit card details, though the media has predictably been running around claiming that card details are definitely nicked when that isn't true - is not good.

They'd rather do anything to save their image rather than their customers' personal data. Shows how respectful of their customers they are. But that's Sony for you .

If they can shamelessly market consoles which break after 6 months of normal use (All early PS1s, PS2s and a lot of early PSPs), state that dead pixels can be part of a console's design, or that rumble in a controller is a thing of the past, then they can do anything involving fucking their customers IMHO . I didn't like Sony before, and I like them even less right now.

( Edited 28.04.2011 00:11 by Kafei2006 )

Sony has apparently sent the following email out to all PSN/Qriocity users. In case you're one of those people who barely ever checks their inbox -

SOURCE.

Bolded the important bits, but if this affects you, do read the whole thing.

( Edited 28.04.2011 07:57 by Martin_ )

Yeah, they seem to have essentially sent out the blog post to everybody. It should have been in peoples' inbox at the same time as the blog, some people probably found out from the news yesterday instead...

I've still not had an email, and no it's not in my junk.

Raff said:
I've still not had an email, and no it's not in my junk.

Same. Assumed it would be here by now, but nope.

( Edited 28.04.2011 12:35 by Mason )

No email on both of my PSN accounts email inboxes.

I'm sure every user knows by now anyway, what with the news stories and the blog news spreading like a virus.