Attacks Cause Sony to Rebuild PSN Infrastructure

[Tom Goldman]

Attacks Cause Sony to Rebuild PSN Infrastructure

The PlayStation Network remains out of service while Sony attempts to rebuild it.

On April 20, 2011, the PlayStation Network went down for mysterious reasons. Due to recent claimed [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108949-Sony-Hacker-Lawsuits-Earn-the-Wrath-of-Anonymous-UPDATED] that it shutdown the PSN due to an "external intrusion." As of now, Sony says that the PSN is still not accessible because it's being rebuilt.

The latest post from Sony's Patrick Seybold on the PlayStation Blog says: "We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve rebuilding our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure."

Seybold admits that this is a "time-consuming" task, but adds that Sony "decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security." He asks for a "little more" of PSN users' patience but doesn't give a timeframe for when the service might be restored.

It sounds like something went seriously wrong for Sony here, though Anonymous believes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109475-Anonymous-on-PSN-Outage-For-Once-We-Didnt-Do-It] that it's all a cover-up for what is likely an internal issue. Sony saying that it needs to "rebuild" makes me think that the recent issue with Anonymous caused the company to go forward with a major change so that something similar would ideally never happen again.

Thanks for the tip Frank_Sinatra_ [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Frank_Sinatra_]!

Source: PS Blog [http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/23/latest-update-for-psnqriocity-services/]

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[xchurchx]

i can only hope that they also add a few more features as a sort "Sorry we pissed u off" gift

 

[Mxrz]

Anonymous can eat a dick.

 

[drkchmst]

Trying to make it un hackable no doubt

 

[Rigs83]

gainal losson

I wonder if the recent chaos caused by the March 11th Earthquake in Japan may have revealed key infrastructure weaknesses that required a full rebuild worldwide?

 

[Weaver]

I thought it was clear what happened in the original news post:
Someone found a security vulnerability in PSN and/or Qriocity (as they run on the same system) so Sony shut down the whole service to prevent anyone from (further?) exploiting it.

the quote, in question

"An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th."

It merely says there was an external intrusion into the companies servers which house PSN and Qriocity, and they shut everything off to protect themselves.

 

[Cipher1]

Wow it sounds like there in real trouble over there.

 

[GeeksUtopia]

To think this all happened right after psn and steam linked together after the release of portal 2

 

[DefinitelyPsychotic]

Its funny that if this is Anonymous, they are contradicting what they said in one of their previous videos posted up on YouTube. That they are "not targeting the PSN users, but Sony itself". But if this is Anonymous doing this, (like I stated above) targeting PSN directly affects the users.

 

[mad825]

If the attack is really this bad then there will be undoubtedly information stolen off the PSN servers. Perhaps they might want to warn their customers? Nah.

 

[endnuen]

So.. Steam on PSN now?
If only VALVe made some damn ps3 games

 

[dkyros]

Its so weird that such a large organization like SONY, known for its computer tech, would be so vulnerable to attacks like this. I bet like 10 years back the CEO was like "Cut funding to security and pour it all into PS3 dev, I can see no other possible outcomes but success!"
Then again, Anon was able to take down a HBGary (Security company), so maybe thats not how it happened.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

Didn't Annon say they were stopping PSN attacks because it affected the consumer base?
Usually Annon is so self-agrandised they wouldn't turn on their words. Makes you wonder.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

...get bushido Blade on there and I will love you forever.

Is there anyway, to get in contact with these guys?

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Sony saying that it needs to "rebuild" makes me think that the recent issue with Anonymous caused the company to go forward with a major change so that something similar would ideally never happen again.

That's what I suspected. What the statement really means is "We were hacked by Anonymous a month ago and we are redoing the structure of the system because they still have our passwords and a general idea of how our system works." Seems very much like a precaution more than anything else.

 

[bob1052]

Anonymous said they weren't going to take down PSN but instead they were going to try and hack their system to find personal details on Sony execs.

Sony said someone was hacking their system so they pulled the plug on PSN to block the hacker.

Even if Anonymous claims they didn't do it, they probably just mean they didn't attack in a way that would guarantee the PSN going down (a giant DDOS), although they are probably still responsible for the current downtime.

 

[Fensfield]

Didn't Annon say they were stopping PSN attacks because it affected the consumer base?
Usually Annon is so self-agrandised they wouldn't turn on their words. Makes you wonder.

Well as everyone's being saying, it's a mistake to regard them as one entity. They're a bunch of different people; some idealists, some trolls, some complete prats that happen to have access to botnet time..

It's not like any one group can keep the others from running off and making the whole look like a bunch of backstabbing liars and jerks. If anything, their mistake was out and saying 'we won't do X', because of course someone would go and do that without their blessing.

.. Hell that may have been the whole point of saying they wouldn't target PSN in the first place, if you want to take the conspiracy theory even further.

 

[DanielPowell33]

I have a crazy (and probably untrue) theory. There's actually nothing wrong with PSN, Sony just turned it off. They're just pissed at Anonymous for bringing down the site during the GeoHot lawsuit, and when they turn PSN back on, they'll say Anonymous is responsible, then everyone will be pissed at Anon.


Unless it really was Anonymous then everyone will hate them anyways.

In all seriousness, I hope it gets back up soon, so I can play some Portal 2 co-op.

 

[BlueHighwind]

I say if Sony doesn't stop being evil with their lawsuits, then they deserve to have their systems down. Permanently.