by: enigmax
Tomorrow a week will have passed since Sony took its Playstation Network completely offline. The company has given only the most token of updates in that time and in the meanwhile the rumor mill has been churning. However, new information has surfaced which points to Sony’s action being prompted by an unprecedented piracy threat.
Last week Sony shut down its PlayStation Network (PSN) and in the information vacuum that followed, fingers were mainly pointed at Anonymous – had they pulled off another of their paralyzing DDoS attacks? Quickly, however, Anonymous denied the accusations, even going as far as issuing a press release claiming innocence.
Then another day passed. And another. And another. This was clearly more than a DDoS but Sony were keeping very quiet – almost too quiet. Eventually Sony admitted they had been subjected to some sort of attack.
Yesterday they made another announcement, informing their user base that the whole system will be offline indefinitely. No further information from Sony but there is a man who thinks he knows what causing the extended downtime.
‘Chesh’ is a staff member from psx-scene.com, a site dedicated to hacking and modding Playstations. Together with various developers in the scene he’s been putting all the pieces together and if his theory holds, Sony has been battling their biggest crisis yet.
Chesh believes that the problem stems from the availability of a new CFW (custom firmware) for the Playstation 3. CFW’s give hardware modified functionality and REBUG, as it’s known, turns a standard PS3 into a machine which provides access to some of the PSN’s features usually reserved for developers.
REBUG, which was released on the last day of March, apparently has a trick up its sleeve in that it is able to get previously hacked Playstation 3 consoles back online after they’d been excluded by Sony. It’s not a feature built in by design, but one that users have learned how to exploit. Chesh reports that some REBUG users were initially using it to play Call of Duty on the dev networks around April 3rd. Neat enough in itself but there was a monster in the shadows.
Since REBUG allowed users to connect to a previously secure and private developer network, certain information provided by users wasn’t security checked by Sony. According to Chesh, one of the items whose authenticity was never checked was – unbelievably – credit card numbers. People could apparently make them up and get access to whatever content they wanted.
“What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content,” Chesh explained. He said that over on PSX-Scene he learned of people downloading free Sony content from the dev networks on April 7th.
As we know, Sony shut down the entire PSN on April 20th and it remains down today. Since Sony have told their customers next to nothing about the problems it has faced – including whether or not credit card information is safe – it’s a safe bet that none of the above will be confirmed or denied.
Chesh himself admits that while the above information is true, he can’t verify 100% if it’s the absolute reason why Sony pulled the PSN offline. That said, it’s a big enough problem for them to do so and if Sony has pulled the plug for another unknown reason, their problems only go deeper. And it’s hard to imagine a situation worse than this.
Update: Sony posted an update on the shut down.
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Valued PlayStation 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 re-building 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 http://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; http://www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; http://www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; http://www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft 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 http://www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or http://www.oag.state.md.us.
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
the high is going to be 94f this weekend