Feldon
This is from May 1st but due to some requests I’ve gotten about whether Sony will reimburse customers for any bank-related costs due to the security breach, I thought it was worth highlighting. From FeedTheGamer: In this morning’s news conference, Sony Computer Entertainment head Kazuo Hirai said the company would consider covering costs associated with reissuing credit cards to PlayStation Network subscribers who feel their accounts have been compromised by the massive data breach of April 20. Hirai, noting that there have been no confirmed incidents in which fraud was committed with a credit card number stolen from the...
Feldon
From Consumerist.com: In congressional testimony this morning, Dr. Gene Spafford of Purdue University said that Sony was using outdated software on its servers — and knew about it months in advance of the recent security breaches that allowed hackers to get private information from over 100 million user accounts. According to Spafford, security experts monitoring open Internet forums learned months ago that Sony was using outdated versions of the Apache Web server software, which “was unpatched and had no firewall installed.” The issue was “reported in an open forum monitored by Sony employees” two to three months prior to...
After initially going on the record stating that Anonymous, the evangelist hacker group, had no involvement in the actual hack of the PlayStation Network (and by extension the SOE network), Sony have now pointed the finger for a different reason. In a letter to congress, Sony has posited that the very disruptive flooding/attacks on Sony servers in retaliation for the George Hotz lawsuit was a sufficient distraction to leave a much larger window for hackers to enter Sony systems and leave undetected. Sony has suggested that had the coordinated denial-of-service attacks not happened, a compromise of their servers would...
Today, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing in Washington, DC on “The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers.” Kazuo Hirai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sony Computer Entertainment America, submitted written answers to questions posed by the subcommittee about the large-scale, criminal cyber-attack we have experienced. We wanted to share those answers with you. Complete 8 page written response (click here) on Flickr Summary on PlayStation Blog (click here) Note that much of this information is generic to the PSN (SCEA)...
SOE.com has been updated with a new Recent Updates section which answers a few questions, although there are few concrete answers at this point. Also, according to a Facebook update, the $10 discount on Fan Faire registration will be extended due to the service outage. May 4, 2011 We want to thank you again for your patience as we work to get the SOE services back up and running. We received several questions and comments relating to the criminal attack to our network and would like to address some of the most common questions today. We are also going...
From MSNBC.com: A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee is demanding answers from Sony after private information from some 102 million personal accounts was taken by hackers. In a letter written by the Congressional Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade and addressed to Sony chairman Kazuo Hirai, representatives asked the company to answer a list of 13 questions related to the hacking of Sony’s PlayStation Network. The Congressional committee has demanded answers about the PlayStation Network breach only perhaps because news of the Sony Online Entertainment breach wasn’t released until Monday afternoon.
From SignOnSanDiego.com, the website of the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. Customers of San Diego-based Sony Online Entertainment must watch out for “spear phishing” scams after a hacker may have gained access to personal information on 24.6 million accounts, including email addresses and passwords. Privacy experts say cyber criminals could have enough information to send highly customized emails or postal letters — or make phone calls — that will appear to come from Sony in hopes of tricking customers into revealing more sensitive information — such as credit card or Social Security numbers. Sony Online Entertainment urged its customers to...
From MSNBC.com: Sony has hired outside investigators to help clean its networks and catch the people behind a massive breach that exposed the personal data of more than 100 million video game users. The Japanese electronics giant has retained a team from privately held Data Forte that is led by a former special agent with the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service to work alongside the FBI agents, who are also probing the matter. Sony said on Tuesday that it has also brought on cyber-security detectives from Guidance Software and consultants from Robert Half International Inc.’s subsidiary Protiviti to help...
From SOE Facebook: Hey folks, in response to many inquiries, we wanted to reassure you that all of your characters and items are safe and awaiting your return. We continue to work on the issues as fast as we can, but unfortunately the servers will not come up today. Thank you for your continued patience; we expect to be back up very soon.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Jethal Silverwing Show and EQ2’s Day podcasts are expected to run on-schedule tonight and should no doubt bring to bear some interesting discussion about the latest turn of events at SOE causing what could be a protracted downtime for EQ2 and related games. EQ2’s Day seems to be at 4pm-6pm Pacific (this could be clearer on the website), with Jethal’s show starting at 7pm. Last night’s Down Range already tackled the security compromises and you can listen to that podcast as well. These podcasts are hosted at OnlineGamingRadio. Also, although it was drowned out...
SOE’s Facebook Update as of 30 minutes ago is brief and to the point: We’re working as hard as we can to get the servers up as soon as possible, but have no ETA at this time.
SOE Customers have started to report receiving e-mails from unscrupulous individuals attempting to lure frustrated players to websites which look and feel like official SOE customer portals to try to acquire additional login credentials and credit card information. Please check the sender of these e-mails and further watch the addresses linked in any suspicious e-mail. When in doubt, go to http://www.SOE.com/ and disregard any links provided in outgoing e-mails. There is currently no “action” that players can take other than to wait-and-see how SOE and Sony addresss the current crisis. UPDATE: SOE’s website has been updated with the following...
With yesterday’s news of all SOE customer records (excluding all but a few credit card details) falling into the hands of hackers, there have been wild predictions of just how long it will take until things get sorted out and SOE games, websites, and forums come back online. The PlayStation Network, which powers online play and updates for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (especially the PSP Go which has no game slot), has been offline now for 13 days and yesterday’s press release suggests that some features will be online this week but the entire PSN service won’t...
First, some comments from SOE President John Smedley: It’s been a rough day. We hope to be up soon, but we aren’t ready to announce just yet. It can’t get any worse than today! I’m sorry the service is down. I really am. Regarding if the forums will be down for tonight: Unfortunately yes. I wish they were because we can’t really communicate with our players right now in a good way except on Facebook. It’s frustrating. But the account system is linked to the forums. and when EQ2 ZAM contacted him: We shot off a quick e-mail to...
Ok not really, but folks, PLEASE be at least polite when calling SOE Customer Service. They didn’t setup the servers. They didn’t write the software or security protocols of the servers. They are not wearing shoulderpads or other protective armor. Their only line of defense is the press release you ALREADY read in your e-mail about this situation. So if you decide to ring up SOE to ask what’s going on, please realize they have a limited script to read from, and won’t be able to magically get the servers back up and running. If you want to express...
Today’s news that the SOE Customer Database has been stolen has continued to break around the Web from the BBC to Reuters to Nikkei news in Japan. We have news from: Nikkei.com ConsumerAffairs.com Reuters.com BetaNews.com CNet Wired.com PCWorld.com ZAM.com Yahoo Finance PC IGN
Between April 17 and April 19, 2011, the PlayStation Network, the online service powering the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles, was compromised. Hackers were able to retrieve the personal/customer information of some 77 million PlayStation Network accounts, including as many as 10 million credit card numbers on file for those customers. This was largely viewed as a retaliatory strike against Sony for their prosecution of George Hotz (GeoHot) who publically posted the PS3 Root Keys allowing owners of PS3 consoles to install their own choice of software, including the much ballyhooed Other OS feature which was prominently featured...
Bloomberg.com posted a story earlier this afternoon suggesting that SOE’s services were down due to a “second attack”: Sony Online Entertainment, a unit that makes role-play games, suspended service after discovering a hacker gained access to its systems in the second such attack on the parent company’s entertainment networks. However in speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Michele Sturdivant, a Sony Online Entertainment spokeswoman denied the claim. Sony Corp. has shut down a second online videogame network amid an expanding investigation of a computer attack that may have compromised the personal information of millions of users. Sony Online Entertainment,...
Although we still have no confirmation or reason to believe that there has been any kind of security breach affecting SOE servers or customer accounts, and we are personally going to just wait and see what is announced, Amnerys has posted on the EQ2 Facebook announcement suggesting that concerned customers can contact SOE Customer Service: Any players that have concerns regarding their account status and security should contact CS at 1-858-537-0898 (10am – 7pm PST, Mon-Fri). and: Please use the following phone numbers for your international area. Remember that these numbers are not toll free and are considered long...
While there’s nothing new to report about SOE games, services, websites, and forums being down since 2AM PDT, there is growing coverage of this issue around the web. Thus far, there has been no additional information posted on any SOE website, SOE Facebook, EQ2 Facebook, or the Twitter pages of any SOE employee or EQ2 team member. News sites around the web: GamesBeat PC IGN BBC News Barron’s And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that EQ2Flames is experiencing record traffic, with some 4,000 members online at times seeking news about the SOE Downtime. Some visitors are experiencing...
All attempts to reach SOE websites are redirected to http://maintenance.station.sony.com/ EQ2Wire’s interpretation of this announcement is this: ALL Sony servers are now under security review due to the PlayStation Network breach, and in the course of that investigation, flaws in SOE’s public-facing servers were found. We have no reason to believe there has been an intrusion into SOE services, as they are separate from PSN servers. Of course news could come to light stating otherwise, but at this point, it seems that problems were found *before* they were taken. UPDATE: It appears that SOE’s entire customer database, excluding credit...
We’ve just seen these server messages: Greetings Norrath! The server will be coming down for a brief update at 03:30AM PDT Monday, May 02, 2011. Please find a safe place to log out before the server comes down. For more information on scheduled downtimes (link). and: SYSTEM MESSAGE: Greetings Norrath! The server will be coming down immediately for a update. Please plan accordingly to be logged off during this time. Thank you!
As of 11:30am CET (2:30 PDT) it seems the Login servers are down or inaccessible. UPDATE: As of 11:50am CET (2:45 PDT), SOE Login servers are down affecting switching characters or logging in. UPDATE: As of 11:55am CET (2:55 PDT), SOE forums are offline.
As you are enjoying today’s Double XP and Double StationCash event, you may want to take note of deals coming up on May 2nd-5th that could reduce the cost of an Additional Character Slot to just $3.50, a Race Change to just $5, or a Character Copy or Guild Rename to $8.75. Other consumables including a Vitality potion will be just $3.50 if you buy your Double StationCash today. From EverQuest2.com: Sale! Sale! Sale! Item Name Regular Price Sale Price Additional Character Slot 1000 700 Porion of Disgenderment 750 500 Guild Rename Potion 2450 1750 Race Potion 1450 1000...
A player asked why the Character Sheet (Persona Window) received yet another revamp with yesterday’s update. SmokeJumper had this tidbit: [While players] didn’t ask for a new character sheet, but they *are* asking for something that will be solved after this change is in place. Here’s what got fixed with this change: Your multiple homes are now listed in the “Housing” pane. (Previous to today, you could only own one house, so a list wasn’t necessary. It is now.) It puts us in a much better situation to add more categories in the near future to take care of...