Huge Hack - Playstation Network, all your info stolen.

[cstreit]

Sony announced today that they discovered that personal information was compromised on the playstation network.

News : Consumer Alerts | Consumer Alerts | News - PlayStation.com

They "SAY" that credit card info was not compromised, but they have all personal details, billing address, etc...

SO if you used the same email/password on PSN as any senstive accounts, change it immediately. Watch your card if you used one on PSN as it took them 3 days to admit they were hacked and 3 more to admit information was stolen.

[stomachmonkey]

Here's the email they are sending everyone.


Valued PlayStation(R)Network/Qriocity Customer:

We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011,
certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account
information was compromised in connection with an illegal and
unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this
intrusion, we have:

1) Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;

2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full
and complete investigation into what happened; and

3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our
network infrastructure by rebuilding our system to provide you
with greater protection of your personal information.

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill
as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and
efficiently as practicable.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident,
we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following
information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country,
email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login,
and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data,
including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip),
and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may
have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your
dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have
been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit
card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have
provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity,
out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit
card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have
been obtained.

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email,
telephone and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive
information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email,
asking for your credit card number, social security number or other
personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information,
you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation
Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that
you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation
Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or
accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we
encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and
to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information
for those who wish to consider it:
- U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually
from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report,
visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.

- We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S.
credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus
place a "fraud alert" on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps
to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can
make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however,
that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you,
it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your
identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others
are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a
fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report,
please contact any one of the agencies listed below:

Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division,
P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

- You may wish to visit the website of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at
Deter. Detect. Defend. Avoid ID Theft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect
yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice
on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or
suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General,
and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be
contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone
(877) 566-7226; or NCDOJ. For Maryland residents, the Attorney
General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202;
telephone: (888) 743-0023; or Maryland Attorney General - Home Page.

We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this
incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the
clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes
information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that
additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information.
Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is
our utmost priority. Please contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any
additional questions.

Sincerely,

Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment

[cstreit]

...and note that it took them 3 days to admit they were hacked. 3 more to admit information was stolen. I don't expect them to be totally honest about confirming if credit-card information was stolen.

Needless to say they have name, email, password, address, etc.. so if you used the same email address and password as PSN on any other accounts, change them now!

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by cstreit

...and note that it took them 3 days to admit they were hacked. 3 more to admit information was stolen. I don't expect them to be totally honest about confirming if credit-card information was stolen.

Needless to say they have name, email, password, address, etc.. so if you used the same email address and password as PSN on any other accounts, change them now!

Can't really say much more than yup, yup, yeah don't, confirmed and you bet your ass you should.

Not surprised about how this is being handled. Expect to hear more but you did not hear that from me.

[cstreit]

i've gone and updated my passwords on any account associated with the email I had on PSN. Putting a watch on the two cards I used on PSN last year. One was a Debit, changing it immediately.

The fallout of this should be interesting, expect a lot of lawsuits from game developers if Sony doesn't get this sorted soon. Who buys games for the single-player version anymore? If the PSN is off, their revenue is gone.

[Scott R]

CC numbers are not stored at Sony, they are processed and stored by my company. They never even cross Sony's network, only the validation token is passed back to them. They use our TransArmor product so you type in a cc number and it's encrypted as it's typed, a token is then generated back from us that they can't read.

There is a lot more to the system, but it would bore the socks of you. Oh and not scare anyone but the average "merchant" does not encrypt, and they store your numbers in their POS system until they do their upload. Often times number are stolen right from those systems.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by cstreit

i've gone and updated my passwords on any account associated with the email I had on PSN. Putting a watch on the two cards I used on PSN last year. One was a Debit, changing it immediately.

The fallout of this should be interesting, expect a lot of lawsuits from game developers if Sony doesn't get this sorted soon. Who buys games for the single-player version anymore? If the PSN is off, their revenue is gone.

The game devs won't/can't do anything about it, at least not publicly. There are only a handful with the juice to push Sony around but they are not the bad guys in this so the most they'll do is deflect. The rest will not bite the hand that feeds them. Sony will take care of them.

When you signed up there was verbiage in the T/C's that covered this so the consumer will have little recourse as well. Again Sony will likely issue credits to them.

[bivenator]

Credits yea, this is probably the third or fouth time my personal information has been compromised this year. State of Texas, Sony, and Chase. Very tiresome, I am sure it will come back an get me at some point. The usual advice about not giving out personal info to an unsolicited contact is the best protection.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by Scott R

CC numbers are not stored at Sony, they are processed and stored by my company. They never even cross Sony's network, only the validation token is passed back to them. They use our TransArmor product so you type in a cc number and it's encrypted as it's typed, a token is then generated back from us that they can't read.

There is a lot more to the system, but it would bore the socks of you. Oh and not scare anyone but the average "merchant" does not encrypt, and they store your numbers in their POS system until they do their upload. Often times number are stolen right from those systems.

Scott that's pretty comforting.

It suprised me when they said they weren't sure.... It's pretty much Online Security 101 to never store the credit-card number on a publically exposed system. They intimated it was a possibility and it left me questioning... Glad to hear they adhere to at least SOME best practices.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Major surprise here!

OK, not really. This is the Sony that sold CDs with automatically installing rootkits. Anyone remember that?

Why people continue to give them money is beyond me.

[slakjaw]

Sony. Rolleyes

[pwd72s]

Last nights local late liberal views reader said over 70 million accounts were hacked? Wow...glad I was never into the games.

[krystar]

Originally Posted by cstreit

It suprised me when they said they weren't sure.... It's pretty much Online Security 101 to never store the credit-card number on a publically exposed system.

yea that's if the company cares to go with security. back in college, i worked for a small (3 programmers) company that did web stores. select * from orders would get me couple thousand ccnumber and billing addresses.

even now, a customer service rep with good memory could take your ccnumber over the phone and jot it down. it's not as secure as people think unless you're willing to jump some hoops, such as temporary credit card numbers. and even then, it won't protect you against an angry underpaid programmer.

[widebody911]

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by cstreit

Sony announced today that they discovered that personal information was compromised on the playstation network.

News : Consumer Alerts | Consumer Alerts | News - PlayStation.com

They "SAY" that credit card info was not compromised, but they have all personal details, billing address, etc...

SO if you used the same email/password on PSN as any senstive accounts, change it immediately. Watch your card if you used one on PSN as it took them 3 days to admit they were hacked and 3 more to admit information was stolen.

I guess this explains why the PS network has been down for over a week then.