Some Good News Surfaces Regarding PSN Catastrophe

[John Funk]

Some Good News Surfaces Regarding PSN Catastrophe

Every cloud has a silver lining, and here are two ways in which Sony's PSN disaster isn't as bad as it could have been - if only slightly.

There's no question that Sony's PSN debacle - now including the Giant Bomb [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109568-Sony-Admits-Private-PSN-Info-Has-Been-Stolen-All-Of-It] has done some digging to uncover some ways in which it's somewhat less terrible.

First, Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek got in touch with representatives at both Bank of America and Chase, who informed him that they had not been notified by Sony of any breaches regarding credit-card information. This doesn't mean that such breaches didn't happen, of course, but if they did and Sony did not notify banks then it's in a heap of legal trouble - which makes it less likely than it might have been.

Second, Valve says that anyone who linked their Steam account with PSN to play Portal 2 is not in danger (other than any information lost via PSN, of course). "Steam has nothing to do with the PSN outage," said a Valve representative. Good thing, too - I was getting worried about my TF2 achievements.

That's the silver lining, folks - two ways in which this tremendous screw-up is marginally less tremendous than it might have been.

The sad part is that this is the best news Sony might hear all day. Wow, that really puts it all in perspective, huh?

(Giant Bomb [http://www.giantbomb.com/news/good-news-psn-back-maybe-within-a-week-bad-news-everything-else-updated/3084/])

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[Onyx Oblivion]

God. I haven't been to GiantBomb in forever. The forums there don't really like the Escapist, if my memory serves.

But my Steam account is getting a password change, anyway. It used the same one as my PSN account, after all.

Sony needs to stay on top of this legal shit. I don't blame them for being hacked, but I blame them if they hid this information from anyone.

 

[sheic99]

So, my Steam achievements are safe, but Sony may be violating a federal law. That doesn't make me feel any better.

 

[RatRace123]

None of this news is making me feel all that better about this whole thing. I guess the credit card thing is good, I guess.
The Steam connection thing doesn't affect me, I never linked my PSN to my Steam. It's good news for those who have though.

Still pretty bad, still a lot of pissed off people with very few answers in sight.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Wow. That's some incredibly insignificant silver lining you got there. Cheers to Sony for the Megafail of the decade.

 

[-Samurai-]

Yay! My non existent Steam account is safe!

So is my fucking toaster. How exactly is that good news? Thanks for trivializing the matter, Valve.

 

[GeorgW]

Yeah, not really good news...
Sony may be facing a fraud charge (it is actually not unlikely) and I never had the chance to link my steam account since Portal 2 came out the 21st here (no portal on steam for me >.<)
Besides, it should be obvious that steam and psn are separate, but nice of them to confirm. Now maybe they could drop that damn link and let me use my code without PSN confirmation?? I mean, special circumstances?

 

[Kapol]

They also didn't tell users about it until about a week after. That's likely why they're not admitting that the credit card info has been stolen, to cover their asses. That way if it turns out it was, they can just say 'oh, we didn't know it was stolen' and save themselves the legal trouble for the most part. And, in the very, very slim chance it wasn't stolen, they can avoid having to admit it's been stolen without being 120% sure it is. It all stinks of them covering their own asses more then protecting the people who use their service.

As for the Valve stuff... I'm really not that impressed by that, but any good news is welcome I suppose.

Wow. That's some incredibly insignificant silver lining you got there. Cheers to Sony for the Megafail of the decade.

Really? This is the 'megafail' of the decade? It's horrible for PSN users, don't get me wrong, but there's so much worse going on on a much higher level in my opinion. I will say this is likely the worst thing to happen to gamers in particular in the history of gaming though. I can't think of anything worse then having every user of a single system losing all of their privacy information like that.

 

[therandombear]

Yeah, not really good news...
Sony may be facing a fraud charge (it is actually not unlikely) and I never had the chance to link my steam account since Portal 2 came out the 21st here (no portal on steam for me >.<)

Off-topic: Not until 21st? Stores around here sold Portal 2 when the Countdown reached 00:00:00, 3 who days before it should xD

Won't be a good day to be working at Sony when/if they get sued =/

 

[GLo Jones]

Here's hoping all I have to do is change my passwords.

 

[alik44]

well at least i think i dnt have to wrry about changing my credit card number...i think but just in case im goona run through a nice security check list just in case

 

[gigastar]

For the first good thing, im not certain how thats a good thing, unless its a confirmation that we can break out the lawsuit papers.

For the second thing, living in Europe, by the time i got Portal 2, PSN was already down.

 

[GeorgW]

Yeah, not really good news...
Sony may be facing a fraud charge (it is actually not unlikely) and I never had the chance to link my steam account since Portal 2 came out the 21st here (no portal on steam for me >.<)

Off-topic: Not until 21st? Stores around here sold Portal 2 when the Countdown reached 00:00:00, 3 who days before it should xD

Won't be a good day to be working at Sony when/if they get sued =/

Aw man, that's just evil >.< What store?

 

[therandombear]

Yeah, not really good news...
Sony may be facing a fraud charge (it is actually not unlikely) and I never had the chance to link my steam account since Portal 2 came out the 21st here (no portal on steam for me >.<)

Off-topic: Not until 21st? Stores around here sold Portal 2 when the Countdown reached 00:00:00, 3 who days before it should xD

Won't be a good day to be working at Sony when/if they get sued =/

Aw man, that's just evil >.< What store?

GameStop, Game and other local electronics retail stores.

 

[sir.rutthed]

Wow. That's some incredibly insignificant silver lining you got there. Cheers to Sony for the Megafail of the decade.

Really? This is the 'megafail' of the decade? It's horrible for PSN users, don't get me wrong, but there's so much worse going on on a much higher level in my opinion. I will say this is likely the worst thing to happen to gamers in particular in the history of gaming though. I can't think of anything worse then having every user of a single system losing all of their privacy information like that.

Ya, that's what I meant. Sorry, should have been more specific.

 

[Redd the Sock]

They also didn't tell users about it until about a week after. That's likely why they're not admitting that the credit card info has been stolen, to cover their asses. That way if it turns out it was, they can just say 'oh, we didn't know it was stolen' and save themselves the legal trouble for the most part. And, in the very, very slim chance it wasn't stolen, they can avoid having to admit it's been stolen without being 120% sure it is. It all stinks of them covering their own asses more then protecting the people who use their service.

Considering "I didn't know" is less a defense than admission of guilt, I'd be more prone to say the "silver lining" is that is that it calls into question of the legitimacy of the claim.

Before about 4 hours ago, a lot of us were taking the hacker claims by Sony to be a lame defense for their unreadyness to deal with a malfunction, and not lose a good chance to take a jab at the pirates cutting into their sales. Now, well, my first instinct was to ask why not checking this information was somehow less imporatnt than trying to get portal 2 back online. That was followed by questions about if the authorities have been notified, or the banks. Heck, Sony didn't even claim the data was stolen, just that it "might have been". It reeks of someone not afraid of any littigation for an act (or rather a lack of an act) certain to get them sued either by private individuals, or the banks and insurance companies that'd get stuck for the fraudualant purchases made in the week they didn't tell us.

Granted, that's the conspiracy theory part of my brain talking. I don't normally listen to it and will still cancel my card.

 

[Jumplion]

God. I haven't been to GiantBomb in forever. The forums there don't really like the Escapist, if my memory serves.

But my Steam account is getting a password change, anyway. It used the same one as my PSN account, after all.

Sony needs to stay on top of this legal shit. I don't blame them for being hacked, but I blame them if they hid this information from anyone.

How the hell are you nearly the first post in every thread I see?

And how is it that you basically summarized my thoughts?

I'm not too pissed at Sony to be honest, shit happens and there's not much you can do if you're hacked. What does piss me off, however, is that Sony have been keeping us in the dark with anything going on. Their communication skills with their customers have always been terrible, it's great to see they're continuing that tradition. All they've said is "we'll keep you posted," "we're working quickly to resolve the issue" "we're working day and night to ensure safety", that is not good enough. We need answers and we need them fast, especially in a situation like this.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

God. I haven't been to GiantBomb in forever. The forums there don't really like the Escapist, if my memory serves.

But my Steam account is getting a password change, anyway. It used the same one as my PSN account, after all.

Sony needs to stay on top of this legal shit. I don't blame them for being hacked, but I blame them if they hid this information from anyone.

How the hell are you nearly the first post in every thread I see?

With PSN down, I am LIVING off the Escapist.

 

[Jumplion]

God. I haven't been to GiantBomb in forever. The forums there don't really like the Escapist, if my memory serves.

But my Steam account is getting a password change, anyway. It used the same one as my PSN account, after all.

Sony needs to stay on top of this legal shit. I don't blame them for being hacked, but I blame them if they hid this information from anyone.

How the hell are you nearly the first post in every thread I see?

With PSN down, I am LIVING off the Escapist.

And only now have I realized we are not friends on PSN.

And I can't add you 3:

I want to play the Sly Collection but I'm too afraid to turn on my PS3 until this is all resolved.