Post by Burke on Apr 27, 2011 13:20:14 GMT -5
While PS3 owners should have spent the Easter weekend playing games such as Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat online with friends, Sony's PlayStation Network was brought to its knees by hackers.
In light of the attack, Sony took measures to bring the network down to address serious security issues, locking out gamers from fully enjoying their console.
Rumours suggested hackers found a way to steal online content using fake credit card numbers to mass pirate software.
But late on Tuesday evening, Sony divulged the full extent of the outage, and it sent shockwaves across the gaming community.
After six long days of silence, Sony finally issued a statement to let 75 million PlayStation 3 owners know that their personal information could have been stolen by the hackers.
Sony believes the following details have been taken:
# Name
# Address (city, postal code)
# Country
# Email address
# Date of birth
# PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login
# Handle/PSN online ID
Regarding personal credit card information, which is stored on the network, Nick Caplin, the company's head of communications for Europe, said: "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."
The company also stated they discovered the network had been compromised between April 17 and 19.
Questions now have to be asked why it took Sony almost a week to release this information, why communication during this time was kept to a minimum and why our personal data wasn't stored more securely.
It's a PR disaster for the company and they will have a job on their hands to convince a shocked gaming public that the service is secure when it relaunches sometime in the next week.
For the full statement from Sony, click here
WTF? I haven’t logged in for weeks. I’m almost scared too now. If my credit card info is out there I’ll be pissed.
