Sony restores PlayStation Network parts Sony reinstated several features of the PlayStation Network yesterday in a phased return of service throughout Europe and North America. Tweeters and Facebook fiends were in full swing last night, with gamers rejoicing like they'd just killed Osama Bin Laden. The return comes almost an entire month since the service was first …
I haven't really cared since I'm in a phase of not playing games much right now, but I wonder if Sony will give me free stuff to make up for the loss of service. If it was XBox they could offer free premium subscriptions but it's free to begin with... free money in my PSN account to buy games/films with maybe?
I doubt anyone is going to get free stuff until the store is up. I think the best thing would be to drop a time limited £25 credit into everyone's wallet which would stimulate the market and make the 3rd parties happier than if Sony just lobbed out a free game of Wipeout HD or similar.
Well you can not it Japan as government will not allow Sony to turn PSN back on there. The Japanese government is demand better security first.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/44325/Japanese-government-blocks-PSN-reboot
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-16-sony-not-allowed-to-turn-psn-on-in-japan
Been wanting to buy it for weeks now.
Glad they took the time to fix it properly though, rather than leaving the system vulnerable and just bunging it back online. That for me is actually far more reassuring, though of course it should never have happened in the first place.
"While many users are still complaining of connection issues, Sony says the system is struggling with heavy traffic due to so many password resets, and assures regular service will resume soon."
Yes, I know, Disney cheated. And I'd hate to think that Apple's advertising department ever made any sense ... But my point stands ... maybe more suo ;-)
"This has to be done from the PS3 console the account was initially activated on,"
This isn't actually true. It was what they initially said but they later relented and said it would work from any PS3 on which you had previously bought content from the playstation store using that account. I was able to reset my password yesterday on my current PS3, which si not the one I originally created the account on.
1) It happened in the first place due to poor security and a professional dedicated hack. So yes Fail icon here is relevant.
2) Its taken a while to restore because Sony have taken the effort to try to ensure this doesnt happen again. Yes this is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but you seem upset that they've "wasted" time repairing the system when you could have instead been playing games. That is an incredibly childish point of view.
3) Why do you need a software update? Why do you think? To prevent the same security breach happening again. If someone steals your keys and breaks into your house, youve got no one to blame but yourself if you dont change the locks and they break in again! So you being upset you have to download a software update to make your system safer is doubly childish!
4) Why is the password server down? Well that was explained in the article if you had manage to control your short attention span long enough to make it to the bottom of the article. It is down due to the high demand associated with lots of people (70+million accounts worth) trying to change their passwords.
Get a life, its a computer game network. Its down whilst its being fixed. It will be back soon. Deal with it!
"- Why did it happen in the first place?"
Wait for the postmortem analysis. It sounds like in broad terms there was security but it's abundently clear it was insufficient in some measure, especially for post mortem analysis such as secure logging which would have helped identify how far the hacker got.
"- How long did it take you to get the damned thing back up again?"
Why do you think? I expect that physically relocating, security hardening, extensively testing and bringing back up a network the size of PSN is a non trivial operation. Everything has to work perfectly, so doing a half assed release that collapses or fails again is in nobody's interest. Even if that means enduring people moaning how long its taking.
"- Why do I need a bloody software update and why is the damned password reset server down?"
The software update presumably deals with the abnormal situation in some manner, e.g. by directing you to different IP addresses for login or some additional security measures. PSN is being rolled out by region therefore if its not up now it will be shortly.
In summary things are coming back which is cause for some celebration instead of moaning.
"Why do I need a bloody software update"
Passwords can only be changed on PS3's that you've downloaded paid-for software to from that account. This patch is probably required to check that is the case. It's essentially there to stop someone who has your user/pass being able to just change your account from any old PS3.
I'll probably get down-voted to Hades for this, but what the hell!
As much as you love or hate Sony they were still a victim of crime. It's true that they could/should have taken more definite measures to safeguard personal info, but the REAL crime is that of hacking with the sole intention of causing disruption and/or theft of personal data for nefarious means. The fact that it was Sony is neither here nor there, and the fact that they managed to keep personal info in a fugging unencrypted format was nothing but a bonus for the hackers - I bet there are smaller, lower-profile businesses who do this as well.
I'll hang on a couple of days and then re-register after the rush has died down. Personally, I'm glad they're back and I'm glad they're trying to do it properly.
health.net - 1.9 million customer details including names, addresses, **social security numbers**, and **credit/debit card details** (not disclosed for months after the attack)
Heartland Payments - 130 million Credit/Debit card records (not disclosed for months after the attack)
TJX - 45 million cardholder details including card numbers (was not disclosed for *years*)
The attackers here got names, email/postal address information, dates of birth and password hashes. They did not get the primary card databases, which were encrypted in any case, and in fact the only confirmed information theft of CC data was 900 active card numbers in a 4 year old backup/development database at SOE. Sony came forward within 2 days of the outage, and 4 days later with only the preliminary analysis complete they warned customers. In a very real sense Sony nearly jumped the gun by informing people so quickly. Typically such attacks and data breaches are not reported publicly for months afterwards because of the time taken to analyze the attack and restore/strengthen systems. Yet despite that, Sony got castigated for being *slow* to respond, when they were in fact abnormally *fast* to respond and advise customers. As much as non-technical gamers wish to decry their response, or people pre-disposed to hate on Sony wish to use this as a stick to beat Sony, the reality is that hacks happen and Sony has responded extremely quickly and strongly to the attack, and they have in reality done far more than any organization I can remember to compensate their customers. Attacks happen, and a determined attacker may be able to break into any network - given time. So, it's not just about the precautions you take, it's about how you respond. Were there flaws in Sony's Security? Sure, of course there were. That said, you could challenge any network of similar size and scope to prove itself free from security flaws. So, blame where blame is due, but let's keep this in perspective. If you accept that attacks are going to happen and no security is perfect, then what matter as much or more is how the victim of the hack responds to protect their customers. If you compare Sony's reaction to those of others, there is a contrast, and Sony doesn't look bad at all.
There's a story at Computer world that talks more about this if you want further reference.
You almost have to ask why the tech media jumped on Sony so strongly, when they soft pedal the coverage of other breaches - Last Pass anyone?
Try this article for some perspective...
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216724/Is_Sony_getting_a_bad_rap_on_its_data_breach_
Up just in time to realize how completely mediocre the exclusive Socom 4 is. The fanbois had been raving how good this year would be for the PS3 but then I guess it can't get much worse. Come on Sony at least pretend to not suck. At least I don't have to play the kids WII in order to play online now.
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