Sony Claims It Told Users of PSN Info Breach Immediately

[Emergent]

I'm completely indifferent, except towards the REAL CULPRITS WHO STOLE THE INFORMATION.

What information was stolen again?

Oh, let's see. PlayStation's Blog, the site that The Escapist neglected to report about~

Sony themselves reported it as a "possible compromised account attack" several days ago. You're too oblivious to read official updates because you expect to be force-fed information that they can't do without PSN being online to SEE ALL THE E-MAIL ADDRESSES. The blog is THE most central site for official news from Sony, regarding ANYTHING. Hell, I frequent the SquareEnix Members Europe site as well because they update regularly with information on upcoming games and DLC/updates to current games AND actively read all the comments from the community.

I think you're confusing me with the "Sony should have emailed me" crowd. I'm not a Sony customer in any way at all, I'm not upset they didn't notify me in time (since I've never used PSN, there would be nothing to notify me of anyway), and I'm not too oblivious to read the official updates because I've been referencing and even linking to them for hours now.
My argument is that there is absolutely no evidence that anything has been stolen at all, and that's straight from Sony's own blog about the issue.

You (and a lot of others) seem to have taken the words "we might be compromised" to mean "our data has been stolen," and that's not a surprise because that's exactly how the Sony PR machine has been spinning the story. They want everyone to think this is about some crippling attack rather than them discovering a critical security flaw in their system that leaves them open to massive legal liability (if you sell someone something, keep the credit card data on file afterward, and then someone else gets that information through you, you are indeed liable for that even if they used criminal means to do it - you have infringed on your consumers legal rights to privacy, and those consumers have a right to sue you for damages).

 

[MattAn24]

They obviously have access to their own network, or they wouldn't be able to use it to fix it. It's just not available for public use at this time. And they have enough information to fill multiple blog posts, I'd say that's enough for an e-mail.

...Are you always this incredibly stubborn? They updated the blog twice DAILY. As well as reminders on Twitter. That's MANY e-mails to spam around. No, they used the blog effectively to pass on relevant information AS IT WAS HAPPENING. They were still updating over the Easter holidays. Word got around elsewhere (I know, I've checked elsewhere, seems to be just Escapist members who are oblivious!), it's not their fault The Escapist didn't spread the right information properly AND you didn't bother to check their site due to laziness. If The Escapist is reporting news correctly, they'd be sending any and all news DIRECTLY here. If they're paid to deliver news to your eyeballs, they didn't do their job properly.

Common sense says "There's an issue with PSN? Hm, I'll check the official site for any comment." I did. And I found the right information. Therefore, I win this scenario.

 

[Saltyk]

Oh, I don't know. I'd go with the fact that someone hacked PSN and apparently stole all the customer information. Possibly even credit/debit card information. The Network was not taken down by an attack, but rather was shut down by Sony itself to protect it's information from further exposure. I'm just reading between the lines here. Maybe it wasn't an attempt at Identity Theft. But the only other alternative is that it was done for... the lulz?

I really doubt anyone would go to so much trouble unless they thought there was some finical gain to be made.

Emphasis mine. When you say "apparently stole all the customer information" what is it that makes you think it is apparent that customer information was stolen?

Well, no matter what our only true source for this information is Sony. I'm only taking it at face value. There is a complete lack of independent confirmation. Sony itself has not seemed overly confident in this. Even when announcing it, it has been tempered as possible. And no one knows the full extent of the breech. I doubt even Sony does. On top of that, only those responsible for hacking PSN know the motives that drove them. It's possible they did it to see if they could and Sony is flipping out over nothing. Not likely, but possible.
[sub]Are you attempting to troll me?[/sub]

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?

Oh, I don't know. I'd go with the fact that someone hacked PSN and apparently stole all the customer information. Possibly even credit/debit card information. The Network was not taken down by an attack, but rather was shut down by Sony itself to protect it's information from further exposure. I'm just reading between the lines here. Maybe it wasn't an attempt at Identity Theft. But the only other alternative is that it was done for... the lulz?

I really doubt anyone would go to so much trouble unless they thought there was some finical gain to be made.

It may be nothing more than an assumption and speculation, but it ain't exactly far-fetched in my opinion. Beats the Hell outta the "Sony and GeoHot conspired to do it as part of the settlement" argument posted here the other day. That's some far-fetched shit.

Please tell me that was a joke. Or that the person who suggested that was attempting to troll the forums. The idea that anyone could propose such a horrible conspiracy theory with a straight face is just terrifying.

But, yes, I expect that the purpose of this effort was Identity Theft. It was the first thought that I came up with when I originally read of this, and all the information I've gotten since only seems to make it seem more and more likely.

 

[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.

To quote George Washington, "Father, I Can Not Tell a Lie; I Cut the Tree." Yes, JDKJ and JackDon'tKnowJack are one and the same. Very observant and smart of you to have figured that one out. Bravo.

Yes, I'm sure that there's all kindas 5-0 on the case already, kicking in doors and turning over file cabinets.

Minor problem with that quote. It was never uttered. It probably never even happened. But, I get your point. I just remembered the name from reading the previously mentioned disbarment trial coverage of he-who-shall-not-named on Gamepolitics. Your posts always caught my attention as you seemed to have a good deal more knowledge of the legal system than you average internet dweller, and thus had a bit of weight in my mind on such subjects.

I doubt there are any door kicking or file dumping, but I do expect some agency is working with Sony as we speak to trace and identify the perpetrator(s). I expect this story will be ongoing for quite a while. Even after PSN is back up.

It's actually more accurately attributed to John McRae, who did any engraving of Washington, his father, and the chopped up tree. But, yes, that Washington ever actually chopped up any trees or said those words is most likely a huge myth. But it's a good myth, so let's run with it, huh? : P

Cops that don't kick in doors and fling file cabinet drawers around the room ain't shit. : P

Sure, why not. I mean I was taught it as truth in Elementary School. Why should I argue with my first grade teacher now?

Lol. Well, they certainly wouldn't be cops for long. They'd have to at least have a no-knock search warrant to get away with that.

 

[beema]

I got notification by reading an article on The Escapist. That doesn't count Sony!

How do these companies never understand that backpedaling and denying fault always makes them look worse?

 

[Awexsome]

I don't see how hard this is to comprehend to some people. When they learned of the breach they closed PSN to protect their own assets. Upon investigation they found out that other people were at risk so they went public with this announcement.

Makes sense to me.

"Oh, but's that what they WANT me to think." Yeah well Geohotz was innocent until proven guilty so I don't see why Sony would be treated any different.

 

[MattAn24]

They obviously have access to their own network, or they wouldn't be able to use it to fix it. It's just not available for public use at this time. And they have enough information to fill multiple blog posts, I'd say that's enough for an e-mail.

You seem to assume everyone has access to their PSN e-mail at all times. The blog is on a website easily accessible, much like The Escapist. They posted more times on the blog than would warrant an e-mail, because otherwise, you'd have 15 e-mails with short updates. They were keeping people informed LIVE, at all times. Sometimes they couldn't report anything new, but they reported whatever they could, even if they're still researching the cause.

E-mailing people about a "supposed breach of personal information" when it's not at all proven as true is a waste of an e-mail. The fact remains, news sites DID refer to the PS Blog many times. It seems only The Escapist neglected that.. Which leads to all these misinformed folks screaming like they lost their mommy at the fair.

 

[-Samurai-]

They obviously have access to their own network, or they wouldn't be able to use it to fix it. It's just not available for public use at this time. And they have enough information to fill multiple blog posts, I'd say that's enough for an e-mail.

...Are you always this incredibly stubborn? They updated the blog twice DAILY. As well as reminders on Twitter. That's MANY e-mails to spam around. No, they used the blog effectively to pass on relevant information AS IT WAS HAPPENING. They were still updating over the Easter holidays. Word got around elsewhere (I know, I've checked elsewhere, seems to be just Escapist members who are oblivious!), it's not their fault The Escapist didn't spread the right information properly AND you didn't bother to check their site due to laziness. If The Escapist is reporting news correctly, they'd be sending any and all news DIRECTLY here. If they're paid to deliver news to your eyeballs, they didn't do their job properly.

Common sense says "There's an issue with PSN? Hm, I'll check the official site for any comment." I did. And I found the right information. Therefore, I win this scenario.

I'm really starting to question your reading comprehension skills. Numerous people, including myself, have already stated that we don't follow the blog. It isn't laziness at all. It's just not following one of the millions of blogs on the internet. I'm sorry that I'm not in Sonys ass, waiting with intense anticipation of their next blog that advertises some shit game or feature I don't care about. I'm sorry that the PSN has a habit of going down due to technical issues once every so often, meaning that most people assume that it's just more routine maintenance, and it wasn't until I came to this site for an unrelated reason that I found out otherwise.

I'm also sorry that your next post will just be some sarcastic remark about how everyone is stupid and lazy and fat and has no life because they don't do their supposed duty and follow the Sony blog and Twitter. But now that I've got your next response out of the way, you don't have to reply!

 

[Saltyk]

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.

i'm only going to say this one more time

The. Only. Time. An. E-mail. Is. Sent. By. A. Company. To. A. Customer. In. Regards. To. An. Issue. Or. Situation. With. A. Product. Is. When. The. Product. In. Question. Is. A. Motor. Vehicle.

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?

Oh, I don't know. I'd go with the fact that someone hacked PSN and apparently stole all the customer information. Possibly even credit/debit card information. The Network was not taken down by an attack, but rather was shut down by Sony itself to protect it's information from further exposure. I'm just reading between the lines here. Maybe it wasn't an attempt at Identity Theft. But the only other alternative is that it was done for... the lulz?

I really doubt anyone would go to so much trouble unless they thought there was some finical gain to be made.

There's no end to their constant wave of stupid. They'll hate on Sony because they've always hated on Sony. This is really nothing new. Haters gonna hate. I'm completely indifferent, except towards the REAL CULPRITS WHO STOLE THE INFORMATION. I can play Gears 3 beta, my PSP games offline, wait for PSN to come back, change password and finally grab the DLC costume for Cecil for Dissidia 012. My bank isn't stupid. If they see a suspicious transaction, my card is blocked. Immediately. They call me for confirmation. It's win-win for me, because I was well-informed of the situation, rather than just selected snippets of over-exaggerated biased article titles on a gaming "news" site.

I'm not here for the "news", I'm here for the video content (read: LRR content)

Don't get my wrong, I won't defend Sony, but I won't hate on them for things that are beyond their control. I'll hate on Sony for trying to push 3D televisions on us, but not because they got hacked. I'll take this site to task for badly writing some of their headlines (take this one for an example), but I still enjoy the site.

I think I'm lucky, too. I do have a debit card on my PSN account, but it's my old card from my old bank account which is closed now, if I remember right. I don't purchase a lot from PSN. Though I feel for those that do.

 

[Emergent]

Well, no matter what our only true source for this information is Sony. I'm only taking it at face value. There is a complete lack of independent confirmation. Sony itself has not seemed overly confident in this. Even when announcing it, it has been tempered as possible. And no one knows the full extent of the breech. I doubt even Sony does. On top of that, only those responsible for hacking PSN know the motives that drove them. It's possible they did it to see if they could and Sony is flipping out over nothing. Not likely, but possible.
[sub]Are you attempting to troll me?[/sub]

No, I'm not trying to troll you. But a awful lot of us here on the forums seem to be taken it for granted that anything was stole at all when the only thing we've gotten from Sony that isn't doublespeak is the fact that there is actually no evidence at all that anything has been stolen.

(and on a personal note, I find it really cool that "doublespeak" doesn't get flagged as a misspelling)

 

[viranimus]

Yeah, I had no problem getting the new "Change of terms and revocation of ownership" email on 4/8 but no such email. I learned about this specifically from the escapist.

Sony, please.

Just stop this nonsense. First you failed. Then you pissed off the wrong people twice, First for being douchenozzles, and then again by making accusations you knew were not true, and when people called bullshit on it and ignored your fallacy, you start this whole game up.

Stop it. Your acting like a child who continues to lie after they have already been caught. Placing blame on anybody else is not going to fix the problem and absolutely is not going to earn you any favor with the people you have upset over this debacle. Would you kindly grow up, accept your responsibility and behave like the company people once loved and supported.

 

[MattAn24]

I'm really starting to question your reading comprehension skills. Numerous people, including myself, have already stated that we don't follow the blog. It isn't laziness at all. It's just not following one of the millions of blogs on the internet. I'm sorry that I'm not in Sonys ass, waiting with intense anticipation of their next blog that advertises some shit game or feature I don't care about. I'm sorry that the PSN has a habit of going down due to technical issues once every so often, meaning that most people assume that it's just more routine maintenance, and it wasn't until I came to this site for an unrelated reason that I found out otherwise.

I'm also sorry that your next post will just be some sarcastic remark about how everyone is stupid and lazy and fat and has no life because they don't do their supposed duty and follow the Sony blog and Twitter. But now that I've got your next response out of the way, you don't have to reply!

You really do like assuming things, don't you? Way to be wrong, though. I'm actually responding to say it has nothing to with "being in Sony's ass". I don't hang around there -waiting- for shit to appear. I just happen to check it often because SOMETHING might be important news. It's not a "blog" that you're assuming it is. It's their home website, that happens to regularly post news.

It is laziness when you say one paragraph later "most people assume that it's just more routine maintenance". Funny, in all my time of using PSN, I've rarely seen it while it's offline. Assuming things often leads to you putting your foot in your mouth for being ill-informed. Common sense would actually tell you see what the fuck is up, just in case. Making an assumption that it's just routine is insane. I "assume" you've never played any MMOs? Designers always notify their players when maintenance will occur and if it's an emergency due to any major issues or not.

You claim you've bought almost every Sony product known to man and you enjoy the games on offer, yet you contradict yourself when you don't keep updated properly on official news, simply because you assume it's all fine and dandy.

You say "numerous people", but there seems to be a rather large group of people who DID read the blogs and actually know the facts, rather than TMZ-style hearsay from Escapist journalists. Right, we're done here.

 

[Saltyk]

Well, no matter what our only true source for this information is Sony. I'm only taking it at face value. There is a complete lack of independent confirmation. Sony itself has not seemed overly confident in this. Even when announcing it, it has been tempered as possible. And no one knows the full extent of the breech. I doubt even Sony does. On top of that, only those responsible for hacking PSN know the motives that drove them. It's possible they did it to see if they could and Sony is flipping out over nothing. Not likely, but possible.
[sub]Are you attempting to troll me?[/sub]

No, I'm not trying to troll you. But a awful lot of us here on the forums seem to be taken it for granted that anything was stole at all when the only thing we've gotten from Sony that isn't doublespeak is the fact that there is actually no evidence at all that anything has been stolen.

(and on a personal note, I find it really cool that "doublespeak" doesn't get flagged as a misspelling)

Well, I'd say that it's a safe bet that whoever is responsible for this did something. The most obvious explanation is that they hacked PSN to access the client's personal information for the purposes of identity theft. Could they have done it for the fun of it? Sure. Anything is possible. But I'm going with the principle of Occam's razor.

If it's okay with you, I'll be sad that doublespeak is not flagged as misspelled while Occam's razor is.

 

[Skops]

you know, I feel REALLY bad for the Sony network guys right now. Can you only imagine the amount of whip cracking thats been going on since friday?

 

[Zenthunder]

Just change what you need to change and watch your credit bill and spread the news of this cause someone has too...

that and hope xbox fans will shut up about this ever

 

[KaiusCormere]

It's funny to me, more people will be mad at Sony than whoever stole the information.

 

[TimeLord]

You know what?

I don't even care about that right now, just fucking fix it Sony!

I agree. I really don't care what happened anymore. Basically, shit got stolen and all I want to do is get back on PSN and remove my card details forever and change my password.

 

[Revolutionary]

What really pisses me off is that they haven't even bothered to tell the consumers directly. I only know about this thanks to the escapist news.

 

[Snotnarok]

No, this is the kind of crap that aggravates the hell out of me. They didn't tell anyone crap, they just expect everyone to check the playstation blog? I didn't know there was one.

Here's a hint, you have a giant mailing list to people via emails, why not make use of that besides giving us the latest news on games we don't care about and actually directly state that your information has been compromised.

Sony is seriously not doing themselves favors by pulling a Hitchhikers Guide on it's users.