Anonymous- Hackers of PSN.

So yeah, SOE said that a message was left in one of their servers stating the Anonymous V for Vendetta creed.
That's one long week, isn't it...

Is it really that hard to program a decent defense against hackers?
It could still be a few days until the network is live again.

Quote: Dear Friends,

I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you.

Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. We will settle for nothing less.

To date, there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused, and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We are also moving ahead with plans to help protect our customers from identity theft around the world. A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.

As we have announced, we will be offering a “Welcome Back” package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.

As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible.

I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It’s a fair question. As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken.

As a result of what we discovered we notified you of the breach. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defenses will be even stronger.

In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event – a criminal attack on us — and on you — and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.

In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for – all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony.

With best regards,
Howard Stringer
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/
That's just great...

Oh well, thanks for telling us.
(May. 06, 2011  2:44 PM)Dude Wrote: Is it really that hard to program a decent defense against hackers?

Very. Hackers are smart, they get around everything. The Wii gets updated all the time, yet it's still hacked. I Hombrewed my Wii before, then updated. Later on that year, new programs were made to Homebrew it with the updates.
yeah they are very smart like on the 3ds it comes with a note saying do not use it in any illegal way i think it sends a message to nintendo what game ur playing if its fake it messes up ur 3ds and yet hackers are still finding a way to get around it
For the record, Xbox Live and Wii Store have already been hacked long before the Playstation Network was, it wasn't that big of news because no credit card and personal information was stolen at those times.

Here's a detailed report of how the network was breeched.

http://www.develop-online.net/features/1...s-breached
(May. 06, 2011  4:00 PM)MEECH Wrote: yeah they are very smart like on the 3ds it comes with a note saying do not use it in any illegal way i think it sends a message to nintendo what game ur playing if its fake it messes up ur 3ds and yet hackers are still finding a way to get around it

If they see that you're playing a game from a flash cart, the brick your DS. However, people are getting around that by making it send fake info to Nintendo.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20060227-260.html

after reading this i called my bank and blocked my card, which means i have to wait over one week to get a new card in the mail, so i can't buy anything for probably like 10 days now. i'm so pissed im considering selling my ps3 and buying a 360. i don't even care about not being able to play games online anymore, i'm just mad about the personal info
More bad news for people who want to play online this weekend.

Quote:Service Restoration Update

As you may know, we’ve begun the process of restoring the service through internal testing of the new system. We’re still working to confirm the security of the network infrastructure, as well as working with a variety of outside entities to confirm with them of the security of the system. Verifying the system security is vital for the process of restoration. Additional comprehensive system checks and testing are still required, and we must complete that process before bringing the systems online.

As you’ve heard us say, our utmost priorities are the security of the network and ensuring your data is safe. We won’t restore the services until we can test the system’s strength in these respects.

When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week. We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system. We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we’re doing everything we can to make it happen. We will update you with more information as soon as we have it. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage.
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/
This is going on for a little too long, now.

Can't they just give us a date? How many times can they go "Oh yeah, you're gonna get it back this week!" and then go "Uuh...Yeah, we need more time" ?

I mean, wasn't the nearly three weeks enough to put on a good anti-hacking defense? This is just getting silly...
Oh wow, this is getting out of hand. Sony's gonna be losing money, Anonymous is gonna get away with it, and soon, all the people that sued Sony, are going to give 50% of it to Sega, allowing it to replace Sony.
(May. 07, 2011  4:12 PM)Dude Wrote: This is going on for a little too long, now.

Can't they just give us a date? How many times can they go "Oh yeah, you're gonna get it back this week!" and then go "Uuh...Yeah, we need more time" ?

I mean, wasn't the nearly three weeks enough to put on a good anti-hacking defense? This is just getting silly...

Come on, none of us really know the extent of the problems and the difficulties behind this repair operation. They're obviously doing everything they can, since for every day that the PSN remains down, their reputation takes another hit.
I know, I know, this is just me getting a little impatient.

Let,s just hope that it doesn't go on for too long.
This makes me wonder... Will Anonymous attack Sony's bank accounts soon? Theres already SOE and PSN being hacked, why not something very big, that will not only affect the Video Game Industry, but also the Economy?
(May. 07, 2011  4:41 PM)FinisherLDrago Wrote: This makes me wonder... Will Anonymous attack Sony's bank accounts soon? Theres already SOE and PSN being hacked, why not something very big, that will not only affect the Video Game Industry, but also the Economy?
Regardless of bank accounts, Anonymous released a statement that a 3rd attack against Sony will be taking place soon, possibly on their web servers this time.
Yeah, that's probably wrong. CNET "reported" that based on a tipster who read an IRC log, which is really poor to keep as a source. There's also the fact that the malice behind this attack is supposedly how Sony's handled the PSN being down. Which is pretty amazing when that'll only make matters worse.
Anonymous needs to grow the carp up. Its just a game for fun!! And yet, they're mad at Sony so they attack PSN? GROW UP!
Alright... If this also affects third parties supporting Sony, such as Square, be prepared Anonymous, to see a rabid ten year old with cleavers and a knight mask knocking at your doors.
Sony spokesman says company is now aiming to bring PSN fully back online by May 31st

What "fully back online" means is that everything, including the PlayStation Store will be up by then. Sony has previously stated the following would all resume service prior to the store going back online:

Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems
-This includes titles requiring online verification and downloaded games
Access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3/PSP for existing subscribers
Access to account management and password reset
Access to download un-expired Movie Rentals on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
PlayStation®Home
Friends List
Chat Functionality
May 31? How disappointing Uncertain

This gonna be a hard hit for Sony...
This sucks. By May 31st, PSN will have been down for almost a MONTH & A HALF. How depressing, espescially for continuous Little Big Planet players like my sis (seriously, when one of her friends are on, you can forget about playing Madden).
You guys could read the rest of the post...

May 31 is the deadline for the PlayStation Store to be back online. Sony mentioned previously that all other services would resume prior to that.
Sony hasn't met any of their estimates yet so it's anyones guess when the service will be restored.