Sony // Current TV

Anonymous: PlayStation Warrants and NZ DDoS Attacks

Reports have been circulating that implicate the rogue movement Anonymous in DDoS... more

Paisano1
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PlayStation hack: Sony users urged to change passwords

Tens of millions of PlayStation owners were urged to change their online passwords... more

remyric
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Playstation 3: What Happens Next?

What takes place after the PSN #ApocalyPS3? We take a look at several questions still... more

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News – Sony Mulling Refunds for PSN Subscription Services

Playstation 3 customers who have paid subscription services like Playstation Plus and... more

Ajoyshop
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PlayStation Breach Affects Over 70 Million Customers

"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe... more

Paisano1
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Sony: Hacker stole PlayStation users' personal info

A hacker has obtained the personal information of PlayStation Network account holders... more

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Sony PlayStation Network’s 77 Millions Users Information Stolen. « Ramanan50's Blog

Information is safe with one.... more

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Sony takes Apple on in PC tablet war

It looks like Sony has finally taken on Apple's iPad 1 and 2. Soon after... more

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BREAKING: Sony’s S1 and S2 are the Playstation Tablets

Sony officially debuts its Playstation-branded tablets, the 9.4" S1 and the... more

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Sony Executive Who Championed CDs Has Died

Norio Ohga, former Sony president and chairman, dies By the CNN Wire Staff April 23,... more

EthicalVegan
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It's Official, PSN Outage Caused by Meddling Hackers!

Unfortunately for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services users, it looks like the widespread network outages will continue.

Since Sony’s PlayStation and music networks went down two days ago, there has been a fair amount of public speculation over the cause of the outage. (Largely due to Sony’s tight-lipped handling of public relations.) Many blamed vengeful gremlins loose in Sony’s server clusters and datacenters, while others immediately pointed the finger at Anonymous, the merry band of hackers that metastasized out of 4chan.

Thankfully, after 24+ hours of communication silence, Sony has updated its blog and ended the speculation. According to the electronics colossus, “an external intrusion” is responsible for the ongoing outages of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. (It probably sounded like this at Sony headquarters. Or this.)

As to who these nefarious “intruders” are: It seems that Sony does not yet know who is responsible for the breach, or if it does, it is instead smartly spending its time sealing areas of vulnerability and trying to get the network back up and running. And though reports of PlayStation’s outage began heating up early Thursday morning, Sony reports that it in fact self-defensively shut down the Network sometime Wednesday evening.

According to the network’s blog, “An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

So, when I said Sony has ended all speculation, I was really only half-correct. Sony is still not naming the party responsible for the breach, so the speculation will likely continue. (Can you hear the blogosphere cheering?) Anonymous has prior beef with Sony and has attacked the company before, so it’s not surprising many blamed them for the service disruption. (You can read more about Anon’s prior grievances with Sony in yesterday’s post.)

However, AnonOps (Anonymous Operations), the group’s mouthpiece and network through which members frequently communicate, has adamantly stated via its news wing that it was not responsible for the outage. Though, it seems that this particular announcement was made prior to Sony delivering the news that the problem was in fact due to hacking. So, Anonymous pointing to Sony’s incompetence as the cause of the outages is off base. Sort of.

More likely, as Anonymous makes mention of in the announcement, the hack was perpetrated by some offshoot of the group, which is either more angry at Sony than the majority, or is more eager to get its precious “lulz”. (While I have to admit that I sometimes find myself sympathetic to some of Anonymous’ philosophical stances, it’s hard not to use words like “fundamentalist” when referring to “factions” within the group, and draw structural comparisons between black hatters and terrorists. There are obviously important distinctions here, and line-blurring, but there it is.) Or, on the other hand, we might soon be learning of an as-yet-unknown hacker entity that is making a run at Anonymous for public notoriety. Gulp.

The PlayStation Network currently has over 70 million users and is Sony’s online medium for its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles. Both the Network, and Sony’s Qriocity music service were targeted. As stated previously, in its most recent blog post, Network spokespeople make no mention of how long the outage will continue, but it’s likely that it may take several more days to sort out. And this is after Sony posted yesterday saying that the outage may last for a “full day or two” — and after Amazon’s web and cloud services suffered from their own major outage.

At this point, the outage has lasted for over 48 hours and has become quite a disaster for Sony. (Or a “kerfuffle”, if you prefer a softer word.) Now, if this were in fact the result of denial-of-service attacks, it’s hard to place the blame entirely on Sony. Few networks can defend against large-scale DDoS attacks, which is, sadly, the point. That being said, the company has known since Wednesday night that there was an intrusion, so I find it odd that it would wait for two days to inform its users — and remove a post from its EU blog early Thursday saying that the outage is a result of “targeted behaviour by an outside party”.

All in all, the company’s public relations strategy is, at the least, very confusing. While it’s true that millions of gamers are being inconvenienced and are being forced offline, sure, it’s certainly not the end of the world. But, both for the sake of the company — and its users — a higher frequency of communication and level of transparency has to be achieved. In today’s world, a company can’t allow its official Twitter streams (@Playstation has nearly 800K followers) to go without an update for 24 hours. Especially when 70 million people are affected.

So, for everyone’s sake, I hope the Network can get up and running before this turns into the longest widespread network outage (due to hacking) in recent memory. If it isn’t already.Unfortunately for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services users, it looks like the... more

existentialist
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.hack//GU Rebirth TGS 2005 Trailer.

5 years after the Twilight Incident, new heroes return to face a new threat to the... more

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1 year ago
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News – Twisted Metal Coming to PS3 This October « Bagogames.com

We all remember Twisted Metal as an insane car combat game that kept us on our toes.... more

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1 year ago
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News – Resistance 3 Move, 3D Capable

Sony confirmed last night during Insomniac's Community Day Celebration in Los... more

Ajoyshop
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1 year ago
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Sony to release VAIO Series Laptops with Chrome OS and Thunderbolt Technology? | Tech Prezz

According to a new report from Sony Insider Sony is preparing to launch an new Laptop... more

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Sony NGP (PSP2) WiFi reportedly to cost $250 and $350 for 3G Version | Tech Prezz

Sony’s new PlayStation Portable Sony NGP is reportedly to be priced about $250... more

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Dragon Age 2 Review

It's not as bad as others are making it out to be!

ZeitgeistReview
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Judge Lets Sony Unmask Visitors to PS3-Jailbreaking Site

A federal magistrate is granting Sony the right to acquire the internet IP addresses... more

jasonshurb
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1 year ago
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LG vs Sony: Customs Seize PS3 Shipments To Europe

Sony and LG have been engaging in a patent infringement battle for a while - with LG... more

sbacker
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1 year ago
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Cheat Codes – Killzone 2 – PS3

After a daring attack by the Helghast Empire on an Interplanetary Strategic Alliance... more

Ajoyshop
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1 year ago
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