Feldon
From EverQuest2.com: By Scott Dale (Customer Service Manager) and Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director, Global Community Relations) Every day, thousands of game accounts are stolen. Tens of thousands of credit cards are compromised. Most of you know someone who has gone through this traumatic experience. Maybe it has even happened to you. Sony Online Entertainment has joined together with a number of high-profile game companies under the umbrella of the Gamer Safety Alliance to bring you Gamer Safety Week, running from February 6th to 12th, 2012. Our goal is to raise awareness of online security concerns, and to provide some...
account security
Yesterday we received an e-mail from SOE informing us of a 25% discount on their SOE Authenticator keyring security fobs licensed from Vasco. These devices can be ordered from the SOE Station Store for $7.49 plus shipping and handling. This promotion ends November 17, 2011 at 8:59am PDT (11:59am EDT; 16:59 GMT; 17:59 CET). Note the free SOE Mobile Authenticator app for iPhone and Android is still listed as ‘Coming Soon’. You can read the SOE Authenticator Frequently Asked Questions at SOE.com.
If there’s one thing you don’t want to recycle, it’s passwords, as some EverQuest II players found recently out. I think we’re all guilty of using the same login and password on many different sites such as e-mail, bank websites, and yes our SOE acounts. Recently, attempts were made by outsiders to login to some 33,000 SOE accounts using login and password credentials taken from other websites. SOE and PSN detected these login attempts and have pre-emptively disabled any accounts that matched the login/password credentials stolen from websites not affiliated with Sony. Note: This appears to be unrelated to...
SOE Security Authenticators are now available from SOE.com for $9.95 including domestic shipping and handling. They may be used on one or more Station accounts. Pricing compares favorably to the WoW Battle.net security fobs which cost $6.50 plus shipping. Plus, you may use one SOE Authenticator on multiple Station accounts, a feature the Battle.net devices lack as of October 2010. Note: Only after entering your credit card information does international shipping or handling rates appear. We’ve seen several reports that international shipping is more expensive than the security fob itself. In the range of $10-13 US, 10 Euros, $13...
Less than a week after restoring its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, Sony temporarily took down the password reset pages to fix a vulnerability that allowed hackers to change a user’s password if their birthdate and e-mail address were known. These data were among the pieces of information believed to have been obtained by the attack last month. There has been no known effect on Sony Online Entertainment and by extension EverQuest II, however this new problem has players nervous that Sony has not taken appropriate steps to lock down the most critical points of attack such as the...
Adding to the Identity Theft Protection plan already announced for US customers, today, SOE has announced a similar program for EU customers. For customers based in the United States, we have made arrangements with Debix, Inc., one of the industry’s most reputable identity protection firms, to offer AllClear ID PLUS at no cost to Station Account holders for 12 months from the time an account holder registers for the program. To qualify, Station Account holders must enroll by June 28, 2011. US – based customers will receive an email in the next few days, confirming how to access their...
After nearly 2 weeks off the air, EQ2 came back online today. Between the new Password requirements, and any underlying changes made in favor of security, it was not surprising that players have reported a variety of problems from Timeout errors, Patch failed messages, etc. SOE Customer Service has been answering phones all day today despite it being Sunday to help players get back into the game after the extended downtime. There will always be issues that can’t be resolved immediately, but today it seems to have been all-hands-on-deck to get things working again.
Now that EQ2 has been resurrected, some players have had issues with the mandatory password resets. Others who have gotten into the game noticed issues with Research Assistants. Some EQ2X players at the Bronze and Silver levels feel there should be compensation. EQ2X players at Gold and Platinum already have a compensation package. Finally, players are curious about when Game Update 60 will hit, since we are just 3 days away from the original announced launch date, and there had only been a couple days of testing. Details after the jump…
Defying our predictions, Sony Online Entertainment began restoring gaming operations approximately 9 hours ago, with EverQuest 2 servers coming online about an hour after that announcement. Before you can log back into EQ2, the forums, or any other SOE games, you must first reset your password. It may be necessary to clear your browser cache or attempt a couple of times (As I did on the forums) to login. WARNING: DO NOT MESS UP ENTERING YOUR ORIGINAL STATION USERNAME AND PASSWORD OR YOU MAY BE LOCKED OUT FOR 24 HOURS!!! EQ2 Patch Errors Some players have reported getting the...
The details of the Welcome Back program have now been specified. Members with a Station Access account get: 500 StationCash And all EQ2 players will see these events all active on all accounts for the next WEEK through May 22nd: Double XP Double Guild XP “Loot Bonanza” All Aether Flying Races All City Festivals Moonlight Enchantments
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...
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.
Today’s notifications at SOE Facebook and SOE Twitter explain that services will not be restored today. With no indication that we’re any closer to a resolution, the question on everyone’s minds is: When will SOE, and by extension EQ2, become available again? Crossed Wires About Dates Bloomberg.com latched onto a terse quote from a Sony spokesman and published a service restoration date of May 31st, leading many publications to report that the PlayStation Network and SOE networks had little hope of recovery before then. But that’s incorrect, according to Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold. In fact, Sony has yet to...
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.