Feldon
From SOE.com: Services Return Following Implementation of Increased Security Measures; Consumer Data Protection a Full-Time, Company-Wide Commitment SAN DIEGO, May 14, 2011 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced today that restoration of its game services will begin today. The phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of SOE’s portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of SOE’s game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords. Increased Security Measures As the result of a criminal cyber-attack on the company’s network, SOE shut down its game services in order for the company to...
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Dethdlr
That’s right! The servers are back up! I’ll let Feldon fill in details or replace this with a “real” article about the servers being back up. I’m headed in to play! Just wanted to get the word out. WE’RE UP! From Everquest2.com: Restoration of SOE’s game services will begin today. This phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of our portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of our game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords.
On Facebook, in the #eq2 chatroom, on guild websites, and yes on EQ2Flames, players have been chiming in that they have been charged by SOE on May 2nd and beyond, with some customers seeing charges hitting as late as May 3rd, 4th, 5th, and even May 6th, well after the games went down. Is it time to call Shenanigans? Is SOE’s billing department on the rampage? We certainly thought so, and ran a story about it (we’ve since pulled the story, but the comments are still visible). With communications in and out of SOE tighter than a snare drum,...
I woke up this morning to an urgent e-mail from SOE’s Linda Carlson asking if I was able to verify that customers had in fact been billed since the SOE downtime started on May 2nd. I went with the story that billing was still happening based on direct comments in the #eq2 chat, comments on the SOE Facebook wall, and of course some comments on EQ2Flames. It seemed unlikely that people on all 3 sites would lie about being billed after SOE services went offline. But you know what they say about assuming. If it turns out that I’ve...
From the SOE Facebook site: We wanted to let you know that we just announced our complimentary Debix “AllClear ID PLUS” identity theft protection program in the United States. For more details, click here: http://www.soe.com/securityupdate/debix.vm
Posted on SOE’s security website: May 12, 2011 We thank you for your patience as we continue to work around the clock to restore our game services. We know this has been a frustrating time for you and appreciate your understanding as we work to confirm the security of our network. In light of the recent outage of Sony Online Entertainment’s game services due to April’s cyber-attack, we are committed to compensating our loyal player base for the inconvenience caused by the data breach and lost game time while we improve our security measures. We are currently in the...
Well, I’m sure we’re just a few minutes away from today’s “Not Today” announcement on Facebook or Twitter, but it’s no longer captivating enough for me to stay awake for it. 😉 And with Sony’s luck these days, there’s no way they’d risk bringing PSN or SOE back up on a Friday the 13th. Toodles. 😉
UPDATE: The contents of this article have been removed until such time as we can verify that credit cards have been charged after May 2nd, the date of the outage. SOE has e-mailed me to indicate that their Billing system was taken down at the same time as all other Account services. Thus, any charges would have already been authorized or pending prior to that time. We are attempting to verify that cards have been charged after this date. If you have been billed by SOE after May 2, 2011, please Contact Me.
This news has been making the rounds so we thought we’d address it and season with a bit of perspective. From Kotaku.com: John Blakely, a nine-year veteran of Sony Online Entertainment and most recently its vice president of development, has apparently left the company for casual-games behemoth Zynga. Blakely’s LinkedIn resumé has him departing SOE as of last month to become general manager at Zynga. Update: Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed Blakely’s resignation and departure. In a statement provided to Kotaku, SOE thanked him for “the passion and leadership he brought to work every day and fully support him...
From SOE Facebook: All SOE games and sites are still offline as of May 11th and will not return today. Thank you again for your continued patience and support as we diligently work on these issues. More information on SOE’s “Make Good” plan to come! UPDATE: All houses requiring rent will have one month added free to help offset any costs incurred during this outage. UPDATE 2: Since a few folks seem unaware of this, SOE has already promised 30 days of free subscription plus 1 day for each day the servers are down. This was posted on SOE’s...
From SOE’s Facebook page: We thank everyone for their continued patience as work continues on SOE services. They will not be up today, May 10th, but we are working as quickly as possible to resolve this.
Although we are unsurprised — restoration of services even by the end of the week now seems unlikely — we bring you the latest news from SOE’s Facebook page as of May 9, 1:55 p.m. PDT: SOE services will remain offline today. We continue to work diligently to bring things back as quickly as possible and appreciate your continued patience.
From Bloomberg.com comes an article posted today (May 9, 2011): Sony Corp. (6758)’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity online services remain shut as of today, Shigenori Yoshida, a Tokyo-based spokesman said. Sony is uncertain when it can resume the services, Yoshida said by phone today. The company is in the process of adopting an improved security system and its plan to restart the services fully by May 31 is unchanged, he said. Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services April 20 because of possible data theft by hackers. The maker of PS consoles had planned to restart partial...
Sony has hit some major setbacks on restoring its PlayStation Network, which affects all PS3 and PSP customers. By extension, this would also prevent Sony Online Entertainment games from coming online, as Sony has indicated that they don’t want to restore service until they can be assured it is secure. This frustrating news is no doubt going to keep us out of our games for quite a bit longer than originally anticipated: Engadget: Sony misses promised PlayStation Network and Qriocity restoration date, begs for more patience Playstation Blog: Service Restoration Update Reuters: Sony removes data posted by hackers, delays...
Ok, maybe not “another weekend” but it seemed to fit in with the theme from our last article. From SOE’s Facebook page as of 9:13 pm EDT: We wanted to let you know that our games will not be up this weekend. We are working around the clock to get our services back up and running soon. Thank you for your continued patience and support.
From SOE’s Facebook page as of 4pm PDT (5 minutes ago): Regrettably SOE services are still offline and will remain so the rest of the day. We are working as quickly as possible to resolve this issue and appreciate your patience.
Although SOE games and services remain offline, readers have noticed some curious changes. Most obvious is that http://www.EverQuest2.com/ and http://www.SOE.com/ are no longer resolving correctly and presenting an error message. The secure version of https://www.SOE.com/ (notice the additional ‘s’) is however online and presenting the same updates we were provided with yesterday. UPDATE: http://www.SOE.com is now resolving properly to https://www.SOE.com/. As there has been no announcement from SOE about what the steps will be for users to change their passwords, login, secure their accounts, and start playing again (indeed SOE communication has been nothing short of atrocious — perhaps...
When I first encountered this story, I had little interest in reporting it at all. A blogger, however well-intentioned, taking the ramblings of a few script kiddies in an IRC chatroom seriously and posting it as a “CNET Exclusive” seems hardly newsworthy. Journalistic integrity must have some minimum standard. We report things all the time which aren’t from SOE or a press release, but they have SOME basis in fact. However the story that an attack is planned for this weekend seems to have gotten some traction and is now making the rounds and being quoted by larger news...
Howard Stringer, Sony Corp Chairman and CEO over America, has posted an apology letter and the first details of the Identity Theft protection package that will be provided for free to PlayStation Network customers. No word on if said protection will be made available to Sony Online Entertainment customers. Dear Friends, I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you. Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring...
As posted on the Playstation Blog at May 5th at 4:30pm PDT: Today our global network and security teams at Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment began the final stages of internal testing of the new system, an important step towards restoring PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. As previously mentioned, we’ve been working around the clock to rebuild the network and enhance protections of your personal data. It’s our top priority to ensure your data is safe when you begin using the services again. We understand that many of you are eager to again enjoy the PlayStation Network...
There’s only so much PSN, Anonymous, and Sony news I can post. I mean, what we really want to know is when OUR games and OUR network will be back online. But, if you just crave this type of information, or your enjoyment of your PS3 (when you’re not playing EQ2) has really been cramped by this debacle, well, here is some further reading: Sony Community Manager for EU: PSN Still on track to resume service this week Kotaku: These are the People Hired to Hunt the PlayStation Network Hackers ‘Anonymous’ denies involvement in Sony cyberattacks Anonymous: Sony is...
UPDATE: Unreliable source used for PSN returning in Japan. PSN service has not been restored anywhere to date. News is now trickling in that the PlayStation Network, down now for over 2 weeks, has been restored in Japan and headway is being made in bringing at least parts of the service (lacking most notably microtransactions and the PlayStation online store) back to Europe and North America. Unfortunately we have no further timetable on when Sony Online Entertainment services and games will be restored. According to a completely unsubstantiated comment posted on a blog, there is now a timetable for...
File this under pure speculative analysis, but Wired’s Threat Level has some thoughts on just who (and why) the PlayStation Network (and Sony Online Entertainment) were compromised and records pilfered. If you’d like a little more insight into the players, it’s worth a read: It’s one of the biggest data breaches in history. Now that Sony has come clean — sort of — on a computer intrusion this month that exposed personal information on 77 million PlayStation Network users, one obvious question remains: Who pulled off the hack? In the old days, the answer would be simple: some kid did...
Some players have asked for updates every 12 hours from SOE, even if it’s just to report there has been no new progress. If this was you, well here you go with an SOE Facebook update from about 2 hours ago: We regret that we were unable to bring services back online today, and continue to work hard on the issue!
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...