Speculation About PSN Outage Turns to Custom Firmware

[Signa]

I was a little pissed at first if this was true, because it would mean that the pirates are shitting on everyone. Then I thought about it a little more, and if I understand things right, a "pirate" who has a hacked console isn't technically allowed on PSN anymore. Therefore, they aren't allowed to even be a Sony customer if they have decided to mod their console. Ergo, Sony, nor devs are actually losing money from these pirates because they just simply wouldn't be capable of buying in the first place. If that's the case, then Sony is a HUGE jackass for shitting on their entire customer base just because they are sad some one is getting free stuff when they told them they weren't allowed to pay for it.

That is exactly why I am doubtful of this rumour. It is like a massive supermarket has a few kids stealing sweets and the supermarket says "Right, we are shutting the place down for the busiest week of the year to stop these kids".

yeah, but this is Sony we're talking about. Those sweets are gold to them, and they are going to call in the national guard to protect them if they can.

 

[EchetusXe]

I was a little pissed at first if this was true, because it would mean that the pirates are shitting on everyone. Then I thought about it a little more, and if I understand things right, a "pirate" who has a hacked console isn't technically allowed on PSN anymore. Therefore, they aren't allowed to even be a Sony customer if they have decided to mod their console. Ergo, Sony, nor devs are actually losing money from these pirates because they just simply wouldn't be capable of buying in the first place. If that's the case, then Sony is a HUGE jackass for shitting on their entire customer base just because they are sad some one is getting free stuff when they told them they weren't allowed to pay for it.

That is exactly why I am doubtful of this rumour. It is like a massive supermarket has a few kids stealing sweets and the supermarket says "Right, we are shutting the place down for the busiest week of the year to stop these kids".

yeah, but this is Sony we're talking about. Those sweets are gold to them, and they are going to call in the national guard to protect them if they can.

hmm, well I just read what faefrost posted. He explained why they would have shut it down.

It's a little more involved than simply being a situation of pirates figuring out how to download free games from PSN. (note all the posts here concerning game sharing and how low priority it seems to be). Rather it is the route that the "hackers" used (and yes they are hackers and not simply pirates). If this speculation is correct (and honestly it does seem to have a ring of credibility to it) then yes this would be considered an external assault. It isn't some sort of credit card trick. They used a hacked firmware to access the private and trusted developer network and spring through that into the more protected public PSN via a back door. From a security standpoint that is really really scary. Who knows what sort of data has been breached? Granted hearing this I am less worried about actual end user CC information. But how many games in development and testing were compromised? How many internal business documents? Payment or contract information to smaller developers with games on PSN? How much were they actually able to get into via that developer network? Just because all most nitwits did was figure out how to download free copies of Angry Birds and MW2 map packs does not mean that that's what the brighter ones limited themselves to.

It actually explains the silence a little more than most of the other scenarios discussed earlier. Chances are they are still investigating how deep the penetration was and what was exposed. They simply do not know, and at the same time do not want to sensationalize the breach or encourage others to investigate any such paths until they know exactly what happened. The fact that they do seem to be saying a little ore to the developer houses says a great deal. I am hoping that they are discussing any specific data breaches of issues with their third party development partners directly as they find them. But all sorts of contracts will prevent either side from ever discussing such things with us. (I mean just imagine the shear chaos that could occur should it be announced that a legitimate COD:Black Ops 2 Alpha was downloaded as part of the breach and is now in the wild.)

 

[JDKJ]

"Saying that Rebug is what did this is like saying a gun manufacturer is responsible for every death that happens with a gun."

If I have to read one more gun comparison, I'll get a real gun and either (a) shoot the person making the comparison in the foot or (b) shoot myself in the head.

 

[Sovereignty]

Well at least with Live, you pay for it and it works.

I am kind of pissed they're still selling PS3's and advertising for them without a disclaimer allowing people to know that the consoles *online* services are currently unavailable.

I'd be HORRIBLY pissed off if I bought a PS3 and couldn't go online. Especially if the box at the store tells me I should be able.

 

[RabbidKuriboh]

this is all well and good playing the blame game but, WHEN THE FUCK WILL IT BE BACK UP!?

 

[RabbidKuriboh]

Well at least with Live, you pay for it and it works.

I am kind of pissed they're still selling PS3's and advertising for them without a disclaimer allowing people to know that the consoles *online* services are currently unavailable.

I'd be HORRIBLY pissed off if I bought a PS3 and couldn't go online. Especially if the box at the store tells me I should be able.

bought my ps3 the day before psn went down...yup I'm pretty pissed

 

[Sovereignty]

bought my ps3 the day before psn went down...yup I'm pretty pissed

And you have every right to be -_- It's ridiculous, have you tried to contact them? Hell I'd ***** at em, they might throw some stuffs at you to get you to leave them alone.


Captcha: ystantun cells.

 

[JDKJ]

Well at least with Live, you pay for it and it works.

I am kind of pissed they're still selling PS3's and advertising for them without a disclaimer allowing people to know that the consoles *online* services are currently unavailable.

I'd be HORRIBLY pissed off if I bought a PS3 and couldn't go online. Especially if the box at the store tells me I should be able.

Are you being serious? You expect Sony to reprint advertising and packaging materials to eliminate references to the online service because it's temporarily down? You're kidding, right?

 

[JDKJ]

If it's true, $10 says Sony doesn't sue those guys. Never mind that, unlike GeoHot, these are the actual people who are stealing from them and the publishers and developers who partner with Sony to put content on the Playstation Store. Never mind that, unlike GeoHot, these are the actual people who massively violated the Playstation Network Terms of Use. Never mind that, unlike GeoHot, these are the actual people who went so far that they had to bring PSN down and it's been down for a week now, meaning they and their previously mentioned partners aren't making any money from people who want to pay for their products. And never mind that, unlike GeoHot, these are the actual people who use PS3 cracks and custom firmware to disrupt services for Sony's customers.

And never mind that EgoHot was dumb enough to publicly disclose his real identity.

Any smart hunter will target the easy prey. It's the retarded wildebeest running slowly at the rear of the herd that becomes the lion's next meal.

 

[Lucane]

So, all these fights against piracy...and Sony still hasn't done jack shit about Game Sharing? The most basic form of PS3 piracy?

WTF is game sharing? by that do you mean LITERALY sharing games with your friends ??

The name is pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? >_>

It manipulates holes in the, shockingly loose, PS3 DRM to allow multiple users access to each others PSN store purchases...even on other profiles.

So wait, you mean if someone unlocks a specific DLC item, another person could access that same DLC by simply using their profile on that person's PS3?

Not just DLC. Sony has FULL GAMES for download, too. So, it really is full-on piracy. You can share it across all profiles on that system.

Wow...if this is still an issue, Sony needs to re-prioritise their efforts...

You can only have your purchased PSN games info across 5 PS3 at a time if you wanna move to a sixth you'd have to disable an older one which would make all game files not bought by other players on that system inactive and unuseable Till the profile is restored or someone else buys it.(Plus you have to trust other people with your Credit Card Info so likely your not gonna be giving it away to just anyone)Though Qore lets anyone Download it's freebies without actually buying Qore that month.

The only way Sony can stop it is with REALLY restrictive DRM, though. I don't think Sony wants to resort to that. They must know about it, though. It's been around for a long time, to my understanding.

 

[Motakikurushi]

Jesus, what a catastrophic mess this whole spectacle has been. 'Trainwreck' doesn't even begin to accurately describe it. We don't even know who or what caused this. The Custom Firmware story seems to be believable, but if this is the case, why has it taken them an entire week (and I imagine this will go on for a long time) to resolve a security issue? Even if you completely ignore the PSN and never go online, you'll inevitably be dragged into this issue. There are lies being thrown around everywhere. I just hope that this remains to be the biggest gaming related disaster that happens in 2011.

 

[JDKJ]

Jesus, what a catastrophic mess this whole spectacle has been. 'Trainwreck' doesn't even begin to accurately describe it. We don't even know who or what caused this. The Custom Firmware story seems to be believable, but if this is the case, why has it taken them an entire week (and I imagine this will go on for a long time) to resolve a security issue? Even if you completely ignore the PSN and never go online, you'll inevitably be dragged into this issue. There are lies being thrown around everywhere. I just hope that this remains to be the biggest gaming related disaster that happens in 2011.

I wouldn't rush to buy into a story being circulated by someone with "420" in their name. Call me a cynic if you want, but that's just my rule of thumb.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Rrriigghhhtttttttt blame your vulnerabilities on a generic hack, sorry Sony you've shown/done nothing that makes it clear and reasonable that modchips/frimware hacks should be/remain illegal.

 

[Megacherv]

Until Sony comes out and tells us what has happened, this is, at best, an educated guess. At worst, a lie.

So, assuming this is true. PSN is down because someone found a way to take advantage of the system in a way to gain unlimited games. And this is why we can't have nice things. People just love to fuck it up for everyone else.

And therefore would also explain why they're re-building the infrastructure.

 

[BrotherRool]

It's not a brilliant timeline fit to be honest. All it's really saying is "happened in the last month"

Timeline isn't even really the right word because it's not matching up any response by Sony but just saying "this happened"

 

[ace_of_something]

When someone's user name is 'Chesh420' A part of my brain instantly clicks on and says 'this person will never have anything important to say'

 

[Weaver]

Reading between the lines: everyone with access to the PSN Dev Network can gain your credit card number that Sony has stored.