Sony Offers PSN Customers a Year of Identity Protection

[John Funk]

Sony Offers PSN Customers a Year of Identity Protection

Worried about identity theft after the PSN breach? Sony has you covered.

It's been over a month now since the with mixed reception [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109448-PSN-Down-Worldwide-Is-Anonymous-to-Blame]), and Sony announced a new phase of its apology today.

All PSN members who had an active account as of April 20th, 2011 (the date where Everything Went Down) will be given complementary access to AllClear ID Plus, an identity theft protection service to help prevent nasty hacker-type folks from stealing your personal data. In other words, from the site itself [http://us.playstation.com/news/consumeralerts/identity-theft-protection/]:

[blockquote]AllClear ID PLUS is a premium identity protection service that uses advanced technology to deliver alerts to help keep you safe. The service also provides identity theft insurance coverage and hands-on help from expert fraud investigators. Sony has arranged, at no charge to eligible PlayStation®Network and Qriocity account holders, for twelve months of this service to be provided by Debix to those who choose to enroll.[/blockquote]

It's not everything, but it's something - and even if it's only twelve months' worth, that should be the danger period for any data lost in the PSN breach. So, this is pretty much only a good thing.

Sign up for the service here [http://us.playstation.com/news/consumeralerts/identity-theft-protection/], if you're interested. This is for North American customers only, however - Sony probably has other plans for our readers around the world.

Thanks, Poopie McGhee, for sending this in!

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[SomethingUnrelated]

Thought this had already been established? Nonetheless, I will look into it.

 

[mjc0961]

You forgot to mention that this one is for the US only. Other regions will be getting other services and thus different links.

Anyway, I applied for my code a few days ago, got it today, and now I'm all signed up and protected. Thanks Sony! ^_^

 

[FalloutJack]

I still don't have anything at stake. There's nothing they could even USE on me.

 

[Buizel91]

They are giving customers identity protection because there identity information got stolen?

Shouldn't this of been done before?...just a hunch...

 

[ryo02]

or you could not sign up for psn ever and have your private information be safe forrever (safe from sony's enemies atleast) and not just 12 month's.

 

[deathninja]

Interesting to see if they offer anything outside of the US. Given the attitude of most global companies I doubt it.

 

[T-Bone24]

Is the store back up yet? Then I don't care.

 

[tzimize]

They are giving customers identity protection because there identity information got stolen?

Shouldn't this of been done before?...just a hunch...

Yeah.
They are saying: Here have a free good service!
I am hearing: We fucked up, and we still cant do our job, so have 12 months of this service after which you are fucked!

This is big amounts of stupid.

 

[Katana314]

While this is an improvement, they need to read Extra Credit's words more carefully; the key is communication. Did they ever at one point just make a public statement to the effect of "Now that it's over, please tell us what you would like us to do to make up for the incident?"

It's been a lot of Sony TELLING us stuff, but that's not what open communication is.

There was once an experiment I'll summarize. An office wanted to boost morale and productivity. They asked for suggestions, and people said the lights are too dim; turn them up. They lied and said back that they had turned them up as a result - people believed them, and productivity went up. They just wanted to be heard.

 

[JDKJ]

or you could not sign up for psn ever and have your private information be safe forrever (safe from sony's enemies atleast) and not just 12 month's.

Similarly, if you never left your house, you'd be safe from getting run over by a big, blue bus on a busy street.

 

[JDKJ]

They are giving customers identity protection because there identity information got stolen?

Shouldn't this of been done before?...just a hunch...

Yeah.
They are saying: Here have a free good service!
I am hearing: We fucked up, and we still cant do our job, so have 12 months of this service after which you are fucked!

This is big amounts of stupid.

If your personal information isn't used to commit fraud within the first 12 months of it being stolen, the chances of it ever being used to commit fraud thereafter plummet to near zero.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

This is big amounts of stupid.

I was going to post something with a moderate amount of words and ideas, but you just summed it up so beautifully for me that all I can say is...

This.

 

[Dogstile]

They are giving customers identity protection because there identity information got stolen?

Shouldn't this of been done before?...just a hunch...

Yeah.
They are saying: Here have a free good service!
I am hearing: We fucked up, and we still cant do our job, so have 12 months of this service after which you are fucked!

This is big amounts of stupid.

If your personal information isn't used to commit fraud within the first 12 months of it being stolen, the chances of it ever being used to commit fraud thereafter plummet to near zero.

Unless of course the hackers hear about this, and decide to wait exactly 13 months.

Honestly, while its a terrible thing to hope for, I hope in 13 months it happens. Drama and all that.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

So, what does that leave us Canadian and Europeans with?

 

[cerebus23]

Old news really i got my email from sony like a week ago and been signed up since.

Oddly asked a few others about it and had to give them the links to do it dunno why they emailed some and not others.

 

[MajorDolphin]

or you could not sign up for psn ever and have your private information be safe forrever (safe from sony's enemies atleast) and not just 12 month's.

..or you could be smart and not use your real information to begin with. Prepaid credit cards and PSN cards could easily cover online purchases. I'm amazed by how people willingly give out their personal information to websites and services.

 

[linkvegeta]

really? I would think that it would be free for all time seeing as what happened.

 

[Dalek Caan]

Shouldn't identity protection be something the PSN provides anyway?

 

[WorldFree55]

1 year? How about forever?