Sony Claims It Told Users of PSN Info Breach Immediately

[Vash108]

You spin me right round, baby, right round....

Wow. Dead or Alive. How Appropriate. Is there a Technonecromancer in the PSHome?

I want to play Shadowrun now

 

[Skizle]

I'm sorry what? I'm a PSN user and I wasn't informed. At all. In any way shape or form. Not even warned about the possibility. I mean....I'd have loved to have been told. I mean...An email would have been nice. So I call LIES! Or at least not the full truth.

Learn to read the blog (both EU AND US blogs posted about it several times) AND their Twitter accounts. It was made well aware, and members of those blogs knew about it because they READ IT WHEN IT HAPPENED.

You know some people could care less about developer blogs or Twitter feeds.

OT: You think they would have this kind of thing fixed, but I guess all of Sony's money went into lawyers and couldn't afford to have PSN fixed

 

[Atheist.]

I actually find it amusing they can be taken down for so long, and apparently so easily.

Sony. Employees. Shut. Down. The. PSN.

On purpose.

It was not "taken down" by outsiders.

You're welcome.

Obviously. But they didn't just take it down "for the lulz." They took it down because there was a serious threat to their security.

There was obviously a threat to their security, regardless of the origins.

There. Is. A. Reason. It. Was. Taken. Down. You. Are. Welcome.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but there is a reason it was taken down. To have a service suspended, and personal information stolen is a serious issue. If even one person has their credit card used in an unauthorized manner, Sony fucked up. If their system can be compromised so easily, they apparently did something wrong.

That said, I'm a PSN user. Luckily I never saved my credit card information.

There is no honest way to think Sony took it down simply as a precaution. It was taken down because their system has been compromised in a serious manner.

No matter what anyone thinks the source of the problem is, it's obvious they have a serious system vulnerability.

Again, not trying to be a dick, but you seem to be being one to me.

I never said it was explicitly taken down from the outside. Obviously Sony took it down. But the cause for taking it down is clearly an external force.

Sorry for responding so hostile, but your response kind of gave the impression that you were intentionally being a jerk to me. X.x

 

[Swifteye]

I wonder how you send ten million emails at once? I mean is there a peice of software that logs all the account names and can group send all at once?

They sent an email when they were totally sure of what the problem was themselves. They could have sent it the second psn went down but a week ago all of us would have probably dismissed it as a one day shutdown and expect it up tomorrow. Personally if I was actively using it and it was down for three days I would have investigated. Anyone who doesn't frequent things is either too busy or too lazy and both would not have read that email if it showed up in there inbox.

Still though it does kinda elude the number one situation here. Does it really matter? I mean yes millions of accounts are going to probably be compromised but how does knowing this after psn shutdown make a difference? Can't really use the information to go back in time so you can cancel your account. If you have a credit card or debit card of any sort they usually allow you to fix situations that are results of theft. and if one doesn't visit the psn every day one should visit there bank accounts online simply on principle.

As far as keeping everyone informed via email. No they did not do this. But seeing as every gaming website probably has several articles about this and they've been on the subject since day one they have been keeping us informed. We just had too do what we always do. except this time we would have preferred an email or something.

 

[mikev7.0]

You spin me right round, baby, right round....

Wow. Dead or Alive. How Appropriate. Is there a Technonecromancer in the PSHome?

I want to play Shadowrun now

Heeeeey you might just be on to something Vash108! Now if only there were a spell named "Find out of the way place 10ft. radius...."

 

[MattAn24]

I'm sorry what? I'm a PSN user and I wasn't informed. At all. In any way shape or form. Not even warned about the possibility. I mean....I'd have loved to have been told. I mean...An email would have been nice. So I call LIES! Or at least not the full truth.

Learn to read the blog (both EU AND US blogs posted about it several times) AND their Twitter accounts. It was made well aware, and members of those blogs knew about it because they READ IT WHEN IT HAPPENED.

You know some people could care less about developer blogs or Twitter feeds.

OT: You think they would have this kind of thing fixed, but I guess all of Sony's money went into lawyers and couldn't afford to have PSN fixed

Simple. You don't get any sympathy from me~ I was well-informed and knew about this FROM Sony, not The Escapist. If anything, The Escapist posted about it AFTER Sony had posted on their homepage/blog.

That's the outlet you have. If you don't check it for news, your problem. Others knew about it just fine, because they weren't immensely stupid. As others in this thread have stated, they have the blog bookmarked AND regularly check it through various news feeds. Surely you could add their RSS feed like any other news site. You would have known about all this earlier!

Now all the rest of us are just laughing at you ill-informed folk..

 

[-Samurai-]

Still no notification here.

If they can spam their newsletters to millions of e-mails at once, they can certainly send out a warning for something like this.

And as far as the whole "You should be constantly checking the blog and Twitter for information" bullshit, does anyone do that for every product they own? Ever swipe your card at a store? Do you constantly check that stores blog to see if your information was compromised on their end? Hell no.

I expect identity theft protection paid for by Sony for the next 5 years. The state of Ohio did it for me when a local politician just happened to be carrying around a disk of names and social security numbers belonging to over half the population of this city, and had the disk stolen from his car. I see no reason why Sony can't protect me from their screw up.

That's an absurd comparison. Your PS3 is in your home. You use it regularly. If you have the time to check a "news site" for information about gaming, you can check direct updates from the source too. Your own problem~

Not my problem, Sonys.

As the consumer, it isn't my responsibility to be on constant alert for Sony screw ups. It is, however, their responsibility to notify their paying customers of any problems that could effect them or the product they paid for. Especially something as large as a massive increase in the chance of having your identity stolen due to a failure in their security system which I would have known about if I didn't solely rely on The Escapist for all of my gaming news!

Fixed that for you. It's not even just about emergency reports, they announce EVERYTHING there and sadly, you miss out because you're too arrogant/ignorant/pig-headed or whatever to bother reading it. That's where they announce ANYTHING about PSN. You can easily fix this by READING THE DAMN BLOG. They took PSN offline. People flocked to the PS Blog. Those that didn't.. Well.. Where else do you expect to get OFFICIAL NEWS direct from Sony. Monthly updates about game releases are automatic and only sent if you've applied for that mailing list. They're DoNotReply automatic e-mails.

I would have know about it if I didn't come here, yet the way I found out was by....coming here? Keep the nonsense in your own posts, don't edit them into mine.

I don't check their blog because, and bear with me here; I don't give a fuck about anything they have to announce unless it concerns me. I don't care about their firmware or game announcements. I do care when my personal information gets stolen.

See, when the PSN goes down(as it sometimes does), not everyone flocks to the blog. Some of us just figure that they're having a technical issue. What we don't immediately think is; "Hey, PSN is down. I think someone just stole my personal information. I should check the Playstation blog.".
That's the kind of thing that, should it happen, they should notify you.

See, when I loaded up the Escapist site to check out the news in the user group I'm in(and, you know, not look for Sony related news, as you seem to think), I didn't expect to see the articles about Sony losing my shit. I just kinda found out here first, since Sony decided it wasn't important enough to send out an e-mail about.

Funny how that worked out, isn't it?

 

[Emergent]

I never said it was explicitly taken down from the outside. Obviously Sony took it down. But the cause for taking it down is clearly an external force.

Yeah you did: "I actually find it amusing they can be taken down for so long, and apparently so easily."

That you later got defensive about it is on you, not me.

 

[oldtaku]

Wow. Just. Wow.

You go, T-Cells, hurling yourself at those foreign bodies. Whoops. That were a new kidney. Well, soldier on.

 

[Emergent]

In Poland we have a saying for this: "When they catch you red-handed (literally: by the hand) tell them it's not your hand".

I don't know if there is a saying like this in the English speaking countries.

There is. We say "Deny everything."

 

[Atheist.]

I never said it was explicitly taken down from the outside. Obviously Sony took it down. But the cause for taking it down is clearly an external force.

Yeah you did: "I actually find it amusing they can be taken down for so long, and apparently so easily."

That you later got defensive about it is on you, not me.

Nah man. Getting taken down doesn't necessarily mean an external force.

I was simply saying that the attacks on them caused Sony to take things down so quickly and easily.

Sorry if you interpreted it wrong. My bad bro.

 

[JDKJ]

Still no notification here.

If they can spam their newsletters to millions of e-mails at once, they can certainly send out a warning for something like this.

And as far as the whole "You should be constantly checking the blog and Twitter for information" bullshit, does anyone do that for every product they own? Ever swipe your card at a store? Do you constantly check that stores blog to see if your information was compromised on their end? Hell no.

I expect identity theft protection paid for by Sony for the next 5 years. The state of Ohio did it for me when a local politician just happened to be carrying around a disk of names and social security numbers belonging to over half the population of this city, and had the disk stolen from his car. I see no reason why Sony can't protect me from their screw up.

That's an absurd comparison. Your PS3 is in your home. You use it regularly. If you have the time to check a "news site" for information about gaming, you can check direct updates from the source too. Your own problem~

Not my problem, Sonys.

As the consumer, it isn't my responsibility to be on constant alert for Sony screw ups. It is, however, their responsibility to notify their paying customers of any problems that could effect them or the product they paid for. Especially something as large as a massive increase in the chance of having your identity stolen due to a failure in their security system which I would have known about if I didn't solely rely on The Escapist for all of my gaming news!

Fixed that for you. It's not even just about emergency reports, they announce EVERYTHING there and sadly, you miss out because you're too arrogant/ignorant/pig-headed or whatever to bother reading it. That's where they announce ANYTHING about PSN. You can easily fix this by READING THE DAMN BLOG. They took PSN offline. People flocked to the PS Blog. Those that didn't.. Well.. Where else do you expect to get OFFICIAL NEWS direct from Sony. Monthly updates about game releases are automatic and only sent if you've applied for that mailing list. They're DoNotReply automatic e-mails.

I would have know about it if I didn't come here, yet the way I found out was by....coming here? Keep the nonsense in your own posts, don't edit them into mine.

I don't check their blog because, and bear with me here; I don't give a fuck about anything they have to announce unless it concerns me. I don't care about their firmware or game announcements. I do care when my personal information gets stolen.

See, when the PSN goes down(as it sometimes does), not everyone flocks to the blog. Some of us just figure that they're having a technical issue. What we don't immediately think is; "Hey, PSN is down. I think someone just stole my personal information. I should check the Playstation blog.".
That's the kind of thing that, should it happen, they should notify you.

See, when I loaded up the Escapist site to check out the news in the user group I'm in(and, you know, not look for Sony related news, as you seem to think), I didn't expect to see the articles about Sony losing my shit. I just kinda found out here first, since Sony decided it wasn't important enough to send out an e-mail about.

Funny how that worked out, isn't it?

Not to say you've no right to be concerned and not to say you're not entitled to notification of potential risk, but don't you see where your expectations are just a little unreasonable given the circumstances? Whatever happened, it was serious enough for Sony to conclude that they had to close shop. I'm sure they have a million things to do in response to that situation in order to fix it and open shop once again. Like anyone else with a million things to do, you prioritize them in a To Do List and work your way down your list. Not everything can be at the top of list.

To be honest, you kinda sound like the guest at hotel that's just suffered a five-floor fire complaining that maid service hasn't come around this morning with fresh towels.

 

[-Samurai-]

Still no notification here.

If they can spam their newsletters to millions of e-mails at once, they can certainly send out a warning for something like this.

And as far as the whole "You should be constantly checking the blog and Twitter for information" bullshit, does anyone do that for every product they own? Ever swipe your card at a store? Do you constantly check that stores blog to see if your information was compromised on their end? Hell no.

I expect identity theft protection paid for by Sony for the next 5 years. The state of Ohio did it for me when a local politician just happened to be carrying around a disk of names and social security numbers belonging to over half the population of this city, and had the disk stolen from his car. I see no reason why Sony can't protect me from their screw up.

That's an absurd comparison. Your PS3 is in your home. You use it regularly. If you have the time to check a "news site" for information about gaming, you can check direct updates from the source too. Your own problem~

Not my problem, Sonys.

As the consumer, it isn't my responsibility to be on constant alert for Sony screw ups. It is, however, their responsibility to notify their paying customers of any problems that could effect them or the product they paid for. Especially something as large as a massive increase in the chance of having your identity stolen due to a failure in their security system.

Should I also be checking the iTunes or Apple blog to make sure the information I provided to make purchases on iTunes wasn't stolen from them? Should I be watching the Netflix page 24/7 to make sure my information wasn't taken from them? Shit, I bought things from various online stores. Should I be watching their sites to make sure my information is ok? No? Then why the hell would I watch Sony?

Why are you assuming that they have all the capabilities they had before they got hacked? Perhaps they no longer have their e-mail addresses handily available for use. Maybe they have to regather that information. Or identify from among it the account holders who gave them credit card information. Why should I receive an e-mail blast from Sony about compromised credit card information when I don't even own a credit card? That is truly "spam."

You're going to say that a multi-billion dollar corporation that is responsible for all forms of computer technology, that is one of the largest manufacturers of electronics in the world, loses all capability to send out e-mails when one of their networks goes down? How many office e-mails do you think have been sent out between the time the PSN went down and now? How many e-mails do you think were sent from Sony Japan to SCEA?

And when something like this happens, you send out a notice to all of your customers, wether they provided credit card information or not. This way you don't waste time going through each user to find the ones that did use their credit cards, and you eliminate the possibility of missing anyone. And I'm sure no-one would be pissed that they received an e-mail that gives the latest updates on the situation, and has that special little "what to do if you used a credit card on our network" section. Worst case is you don't have to read that section.

Just going to edit this quote in so I don't double post:

Like anyone else with a million things to do, you prioritize them in a To Do List and work your down your list. Not everything can be at the top of list.

Number one on the list of important things to do:
Notify the people whos money allows your company to exist of the potential threat to their financial future.

Their is no Sony without their customers, so acting in their customers best interest is the best choice.

 

[Emergent]

Getting taken down doesn't necessarily mean an external force.

Yeah, that's exactly what it means.

I was simply saying that the attacks on them caused Sony to take things down so quickly and easily.

No, you weren't. If you wanted to say that the attacks on them caused Sony to take things down, you would have said "The attacks on them caused Sony to take things down." Instead, you posted "I actually find it amusing they can be taken down for so long, and apparently so easily."

There is a clear difference between the statements "I took down my service" and "Someone took my service down." Well, maybe not to you I guess.

 

[Saltyk]

There's no way someone could get away with breaching Sony utterly scott-free. Sony has a lot of money they can throw into finding them. Either they have no foresight, they are some damn cocky bastards, or they are actually that good. My bet is one of the first two... or both.

It may be more difficult than you think -- no matter the available financial resources. If Sony follows the trail and it ends up at some ISP, what are they gonna do? Kick in the door and start rummaging through records? Unless the hacker's sitting down the hallway from the server he hacked (which does happen sometimes), hack jobs don't usually get solved unless law enforcement gets involved -- they have the authority to kick in doors and nosy around file cabinets.

First, do you or did you ever post on Gamepolitics? Does JDKJ stand for Jack Don't Know Jack? If so, I think I remember reading many of your comments during the whole JT Disbarment coverage.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Sony will take this the the authorities assuming they have not already. This is no minor situation. Its an attempt at Identity Theft on a rather grand scale. I'd actually be surprised to learn that Sony hasn't been working closely with some government investigative authority, like the FBI or even Interpol, from early on. It would also explain some of the lack of information. They wouldn't want to give too much away and complicate the investigation.

 

[Emergent]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Sony will take this the the authorities assuming they have not already. This is no minor situation. Its an attempt at Identity Theft on a rather grand scale.

Is it? How do you know that? Has anyone told you that? If so, who?

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

i love how they shut down the network after a breach had been made. kind of like shutting the stable doors after the horse has bolted :/

it easy to say that with the benefit of hindsight, you can't shut it down BEFORE the breach has occured, and if you do people will still whine that its been turned off and not back on again quickly enough

also, you don't try to fix a car engine while its still running

 

[OutforEC]

I'm sorry what? I'm a PSN user and I wasn't informed. At all. In any way shape or form. Not even warned about the possibility. I mean....I'd have loved to have been told. I mean...An email would have been nice. So I call LIES! Or at least not the full truth.

Learn to read the blog (both EU AND US blogs posted about it several times) AND their Twitter accounts. It was made well aware, and members of those blogs knew about it because they READ IT WHEN IT HAPPENED.

You know some people could care less about developer blogs or Twitter feeds.

OT: You think they would have this kind of thing fixed, but I guess all of Sony's money went into lawyers and couldn't afford to have PSN fixed

Simple. You don't get any sympathy from me~ I was well-informed and knew about this FROM Sony, not The Escapist. If anything, The Escapist posted about it AFTER Sony had posted on their homepage/blog.

That's the outlet you have. If you don't check it for news, your problem. Others knew about it just fine, because they weren't immensely stupid. As others in this thread have stated, they have the blog bookmarked AND regularly check it through various news feeds. Surely you could add their RSS feed like any other news site. You would have known about all this earlier!

Now all the rest of us are just laughing at you ill-informed folk..

1. Parents who don't use the PS3 but who have kids who do.
2. People who only use the PS3 occasionally, the 'casual' gamers.
3. PSP users.

Just because everyone doesn't religiously follow blogs and news feeds does not make everyone "immensely stupid", just as following them apparently doesn't make one a decent person.

 

[JDKJ]

Still no notification here.

If they can spam their newsletters to millions of e-mails at once, they can certainly send out a warning for something like this.

And as far as the whole "You should be constantly checking the blog and Twitter for information" bullshit, does anyone do that for every product they own? Ever swipe your card at a store? Do you constantly check that stores blog to see if your information was compromised on their end? Hell no.

I expect identity theft protection paid for by Sony for the next 5 years. The state of Ohio did it for me when a local politician just happened to be carrying around a disk of names and social security numbers belonging to over half the population of this city, and had the disk stolen from his car. I see no reason why Sony can't protect me from their screw up.

That's an absurd comparison. Your PS3 is in your home. You use it regularly. If you have the time to check a "news site" for information about gaming, you can check direct updates from the source too. Your own problem~

Not my problem, Sonys.

As the consumer, it isn't my responsibility to be on constant alert for Sony screw ups. It is, however, their responsibility to notify their paying customers of any problems that could effect them or the product they paid for. Especially something as large as a massive increase in the chance of having your identity stolen due to a failure in their security system.

Should I also be checking the iTunes or Apple blog to make sure the information I provided to make purchases on iTunes wasn't stolen from them? Should I be watching the Netflix page 24/7 to make sure my information wasn't taken from them? Shit, I bought things from various online stores. Should I be watching their sites to make sure my information is ok? No? Then why the hell would I watch Sony?

Why are you assuming that they have all the capabilities they had before they got hacked? Perhaps they no longer have their e-mail addresses handily available for use. Maybe they have to regather that information. Or identify from among it the account holders who gave them credit card information. Why should I receive an e-mail blast from Sony about compromised credit card information when I don't even own a credit card? That is truly "spam."

You're going to say that a multi-billion dollar corporation that is responsible for all forms of computer technology, that is one of the largest manufacturers of electronics in the world, loses all capability to send out e-mails when one of their networks goes down? How many office e-mails do you think have been sent out between the time the PSN went down and now? How many e-mails do you think were sent from Sony Japan to SCEA?

And when something like this happens, you send out a notice to all of your customers, wether they provided credit card information or not. This way you don't waste time going through each user to find the ones that did use their credit cards, and you eliminate the possibility of missing anyone. And I'm sure no-one would be pissed that they received an e-mail that gives the latest updates on the situation, and has that special little "what to do if you used a credit card on our network" section. Worst case is you don't have to read that section.

No. I'm saying that they may well not be able to immediately turn their attention to that task nor to have it accomplished immediately. It's standard corporate operating procedure that in times like this before you rush off all half-cocked and do something to worsen the situation, you first assess the damage and methodically plan your response to it. Your expectations of immediate gratification really aren't realistic. It just don't work like that at a huge corporation. It's not a Mom 'n' Pop.