Sony’s not having a good morning. In addition to having to recall 1.6 million Bravia TVs, it’s also been forced to temporarily lock 93,000 customers out of their PSN and Sony Online Entertainment accounts. You won’t be surprised by the reason: an attempt by hackers to “test a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords” against Sony’s network database. Some of the affected accounts showed “additional activity prior to being locked” and are being investigated. On the flip-side, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer, Philip Reitinger, stressed that most of the hackers’ details resulted in failed logins and in any case credit card details are not at risk. Users are being told to expect an email if they’ve been affected, which will contain further instructions. Has Sony finally realized the value of timely communication?

Sony locks 93,000 PSN and SOE accounts due to ‘massive’ hack attempt originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony spent a fair deal of time at last week’s IFA press conference assuring the press and consumers that it’s doing its darnedest to stay on top of the security issues that have plagued it over the past year. It’s hard to imagine a move more representative of such a stance than the hiring of a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official. The company announced today that it has done just that, scooping of former U.S. National Cyber Security Center director Philip Reitinger for a senior vice president position. And in case there was any question as to the reasoning behind the decision, a Sony spokesperson addressed the issue, stating, “certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment.” Fair enough, Sony.

Sony nabs former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it over? Is it finally all over? Sony would certainly like to think so, finally bringing its PSN service back online for gamers in its home country of Japan as expected. PlayStation players throughout most of the world have been getting their Resistance on for at least a month now, US services leading the way back in May, but the Japanese government had previously asked Sony to keep things on the DL until it was doubly, triply sure all was good. Given that it only took three days after that initial re-launch for people to find another PSN exploit, that’s looking like it was the right call.

Sony brings PSN back online in Japan, wants us to forget about all that hacking nonsense originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Four weeks ago today, Sony announced its ‘Welcome Back‘ campaign following the weeks-long PSN outage that began in April. Now, the program is entering its final weekend, giving you just two more days to download your pair of free PS3 or PSP games, along with 100 virtual items from PlayStation Home and 30 days of PlayStation Plus. To claim your gratis package from the PlayStation Store, click on the “Welcome Back” tab and make your pick. Sure, a few handouts may not make up for those countless days you spent offline, contemplating a switch to other networks, but free stuff is free stuff, so head over to PSN to claim what’s rightfully yours before the clock strikes midnight on July 3rd.

Sony rolls up the PSN ‘Welcome Back’ mat this Sunday, takes free entertainment with it originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The long arm of the law may have finally caught up with some of the hackers behind the recent (and seemingly endless) PSN outage. Authorities in Spain say they have arrested three members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous and seized at least one computer used in the attacks on Sony. Those arrested are believed to have been important in coordinating the group’s activities in the country and to have distributed the Loic DDoS tool to others. Now, of course, the Spanish government will have to be on high alert — if we know one thing about Anonymous, it’s that it is not trigger shy when it comes to exacting revenge.

Three suspected members of Anonymous arrested in Spain originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news, Asia — the PlayStation Network is finally coming back. Today, Sony announced that it will restore its gaming network across the continent, more than a month after falling prey to a crippling data breach. The company’s PSN services are already up and running across other parts of the world and, beginning tomorrow, will light up once again in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and even Japan, which had been harboring serious reservations about the network’s security. Gamers in South Korea and Hong Kong, meanwhile, will have to wait a little longer before returning to normalcy, though Sony is hoping to completely resolve the issue by the end of the month. The company certainly seems eager to put this saga to bed, and for understandable reasons. The incident has already cost Sony an estimated $171 million in revenue — not to mention the untold numbers of suddenly wary consumers.

Sony says PlayStation Network will return to Asia, starting tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 May 2011 06:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that North America has been thoroughly blanketed in the beautiful green light of a working PlayStation Network, it’s time for other countries to sign on too, and the first out of the gate are the United Kingdom, Ireland and unspecified nations in the Middle East. Sony’s official PlayStation Europe Twitter account reports that parts of the EMEA are beginning to light up now, and while there’s no convenient map for you to monitor the rollout this time around, you can still get updates straight from the source — follow the Twitter feed at our source link and Sony should let you know when to get your game on.

Update: Looks like it’s not just the EMEA, as PSN’s spreading across the world — as of noon PST, it’s lighting up the smiles of bereaved gamers and music lovers in Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South America as well.

PlayStation Network restoration spreads across the world (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 May 2011 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s “Welcome Back” package of free software and PlayStation Plus subscriptions was a nice gesture, but it won’t help you if your credit card gets fraudulently charged in the aftermath of the PlayStation Network debacle. That, however, is exactly what Debix is for. Sony’s announced that it will provide a complimentary one-year subscription to Debix’s “AllClear ID Plus” identity theft protection service to all PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders in the United States, which will attempt to protect your personal data from harm, by both monitoring known criminal activity for your private digits and providing up to $1 million in ID theft insurance coverage. We’ve never used Debix, so we can’t vouch for its reliability, and this particular plan admittedly doesn’t look quite as comprehensive as the one Debix offers regular customers for $10 a month. Still, some peace of mind is a heck of a lot better than none, so we think we might give take Sony up on its offer and sign up by the June 18th deadline. If you’d like to join us, you should find an activation code in your inbox before long.

Sony offers free Debix identify theft protection for PSN and Qriocity hack victims in US originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve heard Sony explain itself at length regarding the gigantic PlayStation Network breach, but this might be the most useful version of the story yet — it’s the one that Sony’s Kaz Hirai is forwarding to US Congress members concerned about your personal information. The official PlayStation.Blog has the full English document up on Flickr for your perusal, and we’ll warn you it’s much the same tale — Sony says all 77 million PSN and Qriocity accounts have had information stolen, but the company’s still not sure exactly which pieces have gone missing, whether credit card numbers are compromised or no, or who could be behind the hack. Sony does say, however, that it had 12.3 million credit card numbers on file, and 5.6 million of them from the US, and that investigators found a file on one of the servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion” inside it. Hard to draw many conclusions from that.

Sony responds to Congress: all 77 million PSN accounts compromised, finger pointed at Anonymous originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony made quite a few promises this morning about how it intends to deal with the fallout from the PlayStation Network outage and breach when it wasn’t profusely and solemnly apologizing — you can find our liveblog right here — including improved security measures and a few token handouts of 30-day free subscriptions to PlayStation Plus and Qriocity and possibly some free software. Perhaps more importantly for you gamers, Kaz Hirai told reporters that services will resume “soon,” and by the end of the week we should see some functionality return. Of course, it made those promises in Japanese, but if you want an English copy you won’t have to look far, as the official PlayStation.Blog got hold of a press release with them all spelled out. Find the full document after the break.

Continue reading Sony promises ‘phased restoration’ of PlayStation Network and Qriocity starting this week

Sony promises ‘phased restoration’ of PlayStation Network and Qriocity starting this week originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 May 2011 02:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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