Over the past few moths, Sony have been getting quite a bad deal in regards to hacks, after the return of PSN, we had the issue on the official Playstation websites, where a vulnerability was found with the sign in process, then security experts F-Secure found a Phishing website being hosted on the official homepage of Sony Thailand(Source).
Sony Thailand Official Site:
Phishing Site On Sony Thailand Server:
Then Sony Music Indonesia was hacked and defaced, by an individual or group known as k4L0ng666(Source)
So-net Entertainment Corp, an Internet service provider subsidiary of Sony Corp, reports that they have had an intrusion and redeemable customer gift points worth about $1,225 were stolen.
Sophos Security reports that Sony BGM Greece gets hacked and information dumped, information belonging to 8000+ people(Source – thanks to KingKush for the tip).
On top of all this hacking, Sony have just reported a loss in earnings of $3.2 Billion due to the awful earthquake and a further loss of $171 million being attributed to the major PSN security breach.(Source).
The icing on the cake, is that PSN will be offline tonight and the PS Store will not return tomorrow as previously rumoured, here is a quote from both US and EU Blogs:
EU:
PlayStation Network will undergo routine maintenance today, between 16:00 BST and 00:00 BST. If you wish to play online during the maintenance, please ensure you sign in to PSN before 16:00.
The latest information I have on PlayStation Store is that we are aiming to have it live by the end of May. Contrary to popular rumours, it will not be reopening tomorrow but we will let you know here as soon as the date is confirmed.
We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by this essential maintenance.
US:
PlayStation Network is scheduled to undergo maintenance today, from about 8am until approximately 5pm Pacific time. During this time, registration and Account Management will be inaccessible, including the password reset process. While some users may experience difficulty signing in to PSN, the majority of consumers will be able to play online as well as sign in to external sites that require PSN authentication (like this one).
For those asking about the PlayStation Store, we’re still targeting restoration of all services by the end of this month. Contrary to reports, the Store will not be publishing today.
Stay tuned to the PlayStation Twitter feed for updates and a notice when maintenance has concluded.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
05-24-2011
10:47 AM
1st..........we are not 2 blame for poor security
05-24-2011
10:51 AM
Sony Sony Sony....
You are pissing off your 3rd party developers more by delaying yet again the PS-Store from being up. They are already worried about how the delay was going to affect their game sales from a month ago, not you are delaying them for at minimum another week. A week is a lot of time to earn profit loss from the PSN down time. The longer the store delays getting up, the more likely developers will cease to make games for PS3.
Worrying about another attack against PSN is all said and good, but if it happens again, then it happens. At this point you need to get the ball rolling as it's going to get harder to explain to your partners why these continuous delays are necessary.
I myself will likely never access PS-Store again after all this, who knows; but I can definitely feel sorry for those that would, especially for those that are sticking it out till the end for Sony, avoiding switching to 360 or PC. Hell I was already forced into the PC version of Fallout New Vegas and Creed Brotherhood just because PS3 limited me to lack of DLCs since the outage. *I know Creed hasn't had any new DLC since the outage, but I never had a chance to get the old DLC either*.
05-24-2011
11:04 AM
LOL oh they didn't go bankrupt -.- DAMN
05-24-2011
11:07 AM
that is sooo not true i just saw a bloomberg report on sony's loss and it points at the production disturbance due to the tsunami and the tax problems being faced by sony
05-24-2011
11:09 AM
Did you bother reading the full article, or did you just read the title ?
05-24-2011
11:36 AM
i don't feel sorry in the slightest for them -_- they can be monsters when it comes to the scene so karma is a. . .
05-24-2011
11:42 AM
What a laugh, what if their own lack of precaution is the reason for the hackers to show up in the first place?
In my opinion Sony should not be allowed to sell their products anywhere until reimbursing the OtherOS feature in full, it was a scam from the beginning, not allowing Linux to use all features, they did not even release an RSX driver for the thing.
At this point with OtherOS removed I wish I had a MacMini server next to my main screen opposed to a PS3.
05-24-2011
11:50 AM
It's good to play on a dead console. Everything is cheap !
05-24-2011
11:56 AM
OH, well... they already have the record of not being hacked... there were a lot of years, but I think it's already time for them to stop fighting against the world, and let it go. There's always ppl who's gonna keep in legal things, and those who's not.
05-24-2011
12:07 PM
of course i did hackers r not costing them billions r they
05-24-2011
12:22 PM
Not hackers but the removal of OtherOS costs Sony millions
What a stupid move it was ....
05-24-2011
12:25 PM
i think that many people don`t know what sony did for the videogame industry in the last 15 years... sony did mistakes, but all users of ps3hax or psx-scene will cry like a little child when sony leave the videogame scene...
05-24-2011
12:57 PM
i won't cry :\ if sony leaves do you think gaming companies just stop making games nope they move onto the next platform or did people forget the xbox 360 or wii or gaming pc
hell if sony leaves that would leave the door wide open for perhaps sega to take over -_-
05-24-2011
01:02 PM
05-24-2011
01:10 PM
sony f'd up attacking the good guys pandora is open now and they cant close it
05-24-2011
01:28 PM
I still dont see the connection with other os being removed and credit cards being stolen. Stealing credit cards is robbing your fellow gamers. I can not see how not having other os would make someone go steal credit cards. Only someone who was already a thief would do it not someone angry over other os.
05-24-2011
01:36 PM
05-24-2011
01:40 PM
lmfao...sony needs to learn not to piss off hackers. they are getting everything they deserve. I hope PSN goes away forever!! It sucks anyway. I love my ps3, so inb4...I'm not a sony hater....not entirely
05-24-2011
01:42 PM
Read the full story, not half of it, read the conversation between fahadsul3man and i properly.
05-24-2011
02:11 PM
I have, it is still no excuse for Sony to not take the consequences of their own lack of actions.
05-24-2011
02:16 PM
I did not excuse Sony nor the hackers, i was merely pointing out that my posting was not false...
05-24-2011
02:24 PM
I had no suspicion to false postings by you, I do have a suspicion on Sony attempting to manipulate people’s perception of the case however.
05-24-2011
02:47 PM
whatever happenend to that hacker group anonymous? you know the "we are legion" group of hackers that don't actually "hack" into anybodys stuff they just do denial of service attacks right. who told sony "we are coming" and then said it "it wasn't us" hmmm. i know it's been said but come on guys... are you still sticking up for them? Came out publicly before all this happened just a big a&& coincidence. no more sony no more ps3 would completely fu## the scene so wtf. homebrew = cool (no psn live with it) this = sick organized attack (suggest group working 2gether) and it's bad for the scene and hurtin customers. whoever it is there's no doubt what there intended end result is to bring down sony. I'm hoping for a MAJOR FAIL on their part cause if i hated sony so much i'd hate ps3 not own one and never come here for all the latest ps3 news (homebrew etc.) i'd go hack an xbox instead. and be up on 360hax talkin **** microsoft they banned me from there network for hackin my console.boo hoo
05-24-2011
03:23 PM
The group anonymous are not hackers they are hacktivists, there is a difference, hackers supported them.
05-24-2011
03:48 PM
oh i c my bad. i just had it workin around in my head that if they weren't being hactivist on sony this may not have happenened. you know like even if it wasn't there group who did it they are still somehow a part. just strange how it all coincides. hactivist i really like that sounds like an activists that hacks. these damn aminitas must be eating my brain coming up with some really wierd sh^ lol i like hotz thank god for him but he should have protected his id better before releasing to the world it's almost like he was seeking credit (he got it didn't he) truth is sony never should have had oos as an option but i'm glad they did and i'm glad it got taken away we'd still be waiting for homebrew otherwise. this other sh^t is gettin old really fast though. and i aint so mad at sony as i am the people enjoying their hardware hoping they fail contradictory in my eyes but like i said must be all the aminitas eating away my brain.
05-24-2011
04:02 PM
Ok so if anonymous is hacktivists, then aren't they information thieves (credit cards)?
05-24-2011
04:06 PM
No Anonymous usually just do DDoS attacks, in the past they have just "taken-down" certain websites down so its users or potential users couldn't access the websites, services or information about that said company.
Anonoymous do not hack into pretty piss poor security networks then poke around for 2 DAYS and steal everyones sh!T. Thats not their M.O.
There is a big difference between taking down a website and being a scumbag douch-ebag.
The only similaritys that both Anonymous & the PSN Hackers have in common is what they do is illegal.
05-24-2011
04:15 PM
apparrently not from what i hear activist that hack "hactivist" aren't really hackers they're just activist that threaten to bring down a company and then completely unrelated "hackers" come in and make big mess of things. there is no connection between the two besides the word hack. in both there names lol yeah i heard about some of there hactivities where heads of corporations personal info was stolen and published but there is no way they did this right because there activist. hell i've heard of activist blowing up labs and buildings to get there point across right so activist automatically implys innocence because thats what the majority believe and so am i cause follow the heard mentality bah bah. my sarcasm sucks a&& don't it rofl
05-24-2011
04:30 PM
well there is also a big difference between what you call an activist and what I call one. I see an activist is a avergae joe defending his rights or joining a group to bycott/protest in an organised public peaceful display... blowing the sh!t out of something is an act of terrorism, designed to scare and make a government/corporation to back down or change their own beliefs. That is a terrorist in my book.
No-one can compare Anoynmous to these PSN hackers, Anonymous planned and executed a DDoS attack on the Sony Websites NOT PSN. Sonys Wesbites have nowt to do with PSN and I doubt they are connected anyway to the PSN servers. Also if Sony had bothered to check the IRC's, websites etc days before it happened (which I am sure they did) they knew it was coming. Anonymous managed to take down the Sony websites for a few hours, Sony got their sites back up and the loss of revenues was bear mininimal and it made NO impact on the PSN gaming users.
The PSN hackers however got access to the PSN servers without any prior warning, they spend 2 days in the system, snooping around and started to copy info and encrypted data. These hackers did not shut down the PSN servers... Sony shut them down themselves to stop the intrusion, they kept it down while they rebuilt and moved the servers. Unlike anoynmous these hackers cost Sony a bucket load of cash $171 Million as I have read.
05-24-2011
04:32 PM
05-24-2011
04:48 PM
The part of the credit card database information that was taken was encrypted. My slight concern I had was that the unencryption key to unlock the data was stored on the same server I believe.
I was more concerned with the user account data they stole which wasn't encrypted that contained email addresses and PSN passwords (apparently hashed but that still is a crap security protocol). Mainly because I use the same email address and password on many systems including paypal. With this info they could have accessed my credit card to pay for goods/services or transfer money to another account another way.
I belive there hasn't been any confirmed cases of money being taken from any PSN user (apart from the £1 Sony took from my card prior to the PSN outage). I think tho the data taken was more of the case that these hackers wanted to make a statement to Sony to say your securitys pretty sh!t look what I've got than getting it for financial gain.
Here was the most concerning bit of all, it was revealed by a well-known hacker/coder and other sources that the PSN servers had been insecure for a while, there were reports of "external" users having their own shell installed on the PSN servers and had been there for some time!
EDIT: I think your wiki entry refers to the 2nd April reports of Anonymous attacks on Sony, PSN was interrupted but this was never proven that it was Anonoymous DDoS attacks that caused the short outage, infact if you remember because of the backlash from PSN gamers. Anonymous halted their DDoS attacks until it was confimed it was them and/or a method of attack was found that would not affect the Playstation Network. The rest of the wiki was true especially on the threats of personal harassment, however SonyRecon did not get the employees information by hacking into the Sony systems, they got it another way. Company directorys was one & calling Sony was another lol
Now it was also reported that the PSN hackers could have been a broken off cell of hackers and it could have been the case, however I still firmly believe it was rather an "inside" job of sorts before PSN went down (think it was 2 weeks before they were hacked) they culled a percentage of their own workforce. They may have fired the wrong person but this is all speculation, i doubt we will ever find out who done it.
05-24-2011
05:01 PM
exactly daviemac. if people scoured the net for info. on them they'd see the good, the bad, and the ugly, and might come to the same conclusion i have (maybe not thats okay) but from what i can tell it's pretty damn obvious and they have stolen info before and they have multiple m.o.s . oh well i'm gonna quit b4 i start getting flamed for going of topic lol (not an anonymous debate thread i spose. wish people would look into these peeps though as a possible cause cause as we agreed info was taken but money from user was not. it forced sony to shut down psn made this mess and your account email credit card paypal is just fine. EDIT: it actually does follow their m.o. "taking down certain websites so its users or potential users couldn't access the websites, services or information about that said company." ddos attack is easiest way i hear doesn't mean the only way they do things i think they did it this way to avoid pissin off gamers make sony shut it down themselves and just say hey it wasn't us it was some other guys. they didn't care about mastercard users when they took those services offline either. they stopped attacking psn because gamers got upset? they new before they started gamers would be pissed. look at the end result. psn shut down cost sony millions. it breathes anonymous but i could be wrong it could be a group "within" anonymous but not anonymous makes since right an unofficial anonymous action. guess that means anonymous had nothin to do with it roflmao i'd be satisfied if Anonymous stepped and handed these F#ckers over to us the gamers but lol lol all the way lol anyways wish f#cks would leave sony alone so we can get back to homebrew and videogame hacking/playing all this is just gonna make it harder on us hobbyist/homebrew enthusiast in the future.
05-24-2011
05:02 PM
05-24-2011
06:20 PM
Admins, I'm an official signed artist member to Sony/SME Greece and I can confirm that this is not true as for the time and date of this post.
05-24-2011
06:23 PM
Well I don't know the real truth out of this ordeal whether these PSN hackers are really to blame or Sony just making a fuss out of it. They're lost of profit is still unfortunate
If there's one thing I know, I CFW'ed my PS3 purely for my own and don't harm others. I don't use PSN much anyway. Still, hurting others (in this case, Sony affected by these "hackers") is just wrong.
05-24-2011
06:23 PM
Admins i am the pope and i can confirm i killed osama bin laden. lol just joking but how do we know you are who you say you are? Edit: not trying to piss you off it's news if you are just how to confirm?
05-24-2011
06:41 PM
Also I'm no god by saying I am a member of SME, it's kinda normal/usual to say that it's just a job, also I have nothing to win by lieing...
05-24-2011
06:45 PM
lol thats not what i was implying (whole god thing) just trying to make since of it and how to be sure lol? wow dude if thats 4 real. not hard to steal an ip though i guess. i'm really just confused cause you make it sound like they had security and would have to be a sony employee to do what happenend if that's true every1 *****in about the lack of sonys security owes them an apology EDIT: i guess we really were protectected from external intrusions and sony would have their name adress and everything really had us, the f.b.i. and homeland security going lol. i'd love to believe you it would mean it really wasn't sonys lack of security it was an a-wall employee with access no way to stop it. i don't know man still skepticical.
05-24-2011
08:54 PM
Well Sony took almost a week to inform their customers and staff regarding the PSN hack, so what makes you think you will be any different, also you should tell all these other sites they are wrong too:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/s...woes-continue/
http://psgroove.com/content.php?1066...te-Compromised
http://www.techieinsider.com/news/8211
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...98b0d5d21c.311
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/8554819.cms
http://kotaku.com/5804938/sony-non+p...just-dont-quit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...202175090.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...202175090.html
http://www.techdigest.tv/2011/05/sony_hacks_cont.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/st...ch-greece.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...4SAH_blog.html
http://www.business-standard.com/ind...gaming/436666/
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic..._hit_by_hacker
Anyone else want to tell me my posting is wrong ?
05-24-2011
09:02 PM
And Greece isn't the most stabile country I know atm so I believe it right away
05-24-2011
09:10 PM
definitely not me but i read your whole post and was a little confused about which part was being called untrue. he just said at this date and time it's not and then the whole they know who did it thing i may have mistaken him thought he was talking about the whole article including the 171 mil lost due to psn hackers the outage from being breached etc.
05-24-2011
10:12 PM
They are still pointing their giant brown fingers at hackers in general. This gives ALL HACKERS ON EARTH a bad reputation and it is bullcrap. If they cannot find the individuals or groups that are responsible and name them in particular, they should shut their faces and quit defacing hard-working citizens.
05-24-2011
10:56 PM
No no no! I meant that the part that personal info got stollen is wrong, somebody must have misstranslated a Greek article and the info got spread wrong, the main site has been hacked, not the server with the important files/info. Also this list with names, addresses etc. It's totally wrong, not to mention that those people are made up or found online by a social service and listed their info and with a program they searched for greek accounts and listed their info. The attack on another Sony named thing is true, though somebody tried to make it look worse than it really is.
05-25-2011
01:07 AM
I hate it when hackers that want to open their hardware for homebrew are pigeon-holed in with hackers that want to steal credit card information or hackers that want to cheat in online games. Can't we come up with three different names? cool guys, a-holes and twats perhaps?
05-25-2011
12:36 PM
Come on, the crew who did that stuff, you can call them a-holes but they've made the perfect thing to be seen and to really hurt $. It's another level that what you see, and ok some wil think that they are a-holes but they've made something and they were heard. And it's far beyond the os removal. Lots of crew do that stuff and to any big selling website.
The battle is not you and your 70 euros games who last 9 ****ty hours. And game is sometimes a big word, some games are f__king movies, now the less you push buttons the more people seems to be happy. Move and all that ****... But nintendo makes $ so everybody can. Casual gaming.
And I've loved sony, since the first hour of the psx. And before that on megadrive and before... So if they can't survive to this I don't give a ****. My problem is that I tryed to buy an xbox but I really can't, don't know why. So I got few ps3 and I don't give a ****. There politic is really not clear, the security level of such a company has to be secured, no other way. And if it's not, be clear with everybody, don't "make.believe" people and just ****ing make games a,d improuve that goddam security. They are to mysterious, like a sect. There attitude from the past 6 years made them the best victim. And they continue...