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Sony releases PSN/Qriocity Network outage FAQs |
Listed in: News Tags: PlayStation Network, qriocity, Sony
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Sony has released a more detailed "Questions and answers" post regarding the cause of the recent PlayStation Network/Qriocity outage.
Clarifying a few points in his post earlier, SCEA's Patrick Seybold also explained the "difference in timing between when we identified there was an intrusion and when we learned of consumers’ data being compromised." According to Seybold, they learned about the intrusion on April 19th and subsequently shut the services down. "We then brought in outside experts to help us learn how the intrusion occurred and to conduct an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the incident," he continued. "It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach. We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly this afternoon."
Now moving on to some of the more frequently asked questions about the outage, here are the current FAQs from Sony:
- When did the PSN/Qriocity become unavailable?
- PSN/Qriocity services have not been available since April 20 (US time) in all regions.
- Why did the PSN/Qriocity become unavailable?
- An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.
- Why was Sony not prepared for a compromise of its network?
- We are currently conducting a thorough investigation of the situation. Since this is an overall security related issue, we cannot comment further at this time.
- Is the attack by “Anonymous” or another party?
- We are currently conducting a thorough investigation of the situation. Since this is an overall security related issue, we cannot comment further at this time.
- Why is it taking so long to restore network services?
- As soon as we learned of this issue, we temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services in order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.
- How serious is this compromise? How will Sony prevent this from happening again?
- Because there is an on-going investigation we cannot comment further at this time, but we are working to restore and maintain and strengthen the services, including incorporating additional countermeasures to ward against future intrusions.
- When will service be restored?
- We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.
- We will keep the service down to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure smooth operation of our network services when they return; we are working hard to resume the services as soon as we can be reasonably assured our security concerns have been addressed.
- Did SOE experience an attack due to the same reason?
- SOE’s services are currently available, but they did experience a service interruption due to an external attack. An investigation is ongoing.
- Have you had such a long PSN/Qriocity service termination like this one in the past?
- No.
- Does PSN/Qriocity get attacked very often?
- We cannot make any comments regarding this matter at this time.
- I want my money back (subscription fee, content) since the PSN/Qriocity was not available.
- While we are still assessing the impact of this incident, we recognize that this may have had financial impact on our loyal customers. We are currently reviewing options and will update you when the service is restored.
- There seems to be some games that cannot be played even offline?
- Some games may require access to PSN for trophy sync, security checks or other network functionality and therefore cannot be played offline.
- Why are Sony Online Entertainment services available while PSN and Qriocity are still down and you (SCE/Sony) are not able to even tell us when it will come back again?
- As our investigation in this matter is ongoing, we cannot comment further on this matter.
- What personally identifying information do you suspect has been compromised?
- Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information provided by PlayStation Network/Qriocity account holders: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birth date, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password, login, and handle/PSN online ID. Other profile data may also have been obtained, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip). If an account holder has authorized a sub-account for a dependent, the same data with respect to that dependent may have been obtained. If an account holder provided credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, it is possible that the credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained.
- How will I know if my personal information has been compromised?
- We have provided notices to consumers at the email addresses associated with their PlayStation Network/Qriocity accounts. You may also visit www.us.playstation.com/support and www.qriocity.com for notices regarding this issue. In addition, we have taken steps to disseminate information regarding this issue to media outlets so that consumers are informed. To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your credit card account statements and to monitor your credit reports.
- What steps have you taken to investigate this compromise?
- We have engaged an outside, recognized security firm to investigate this incident and to assist us in our ongoing efforts to protect your personally identifiable information.
- I got an email from you asking for my PSN/Qriocity sign-in ID and password. Is it really you asking for this 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.
- What should I do to avoid having my personal information compromised?
- For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, postal mail or other 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. Additionally, if you use the same user name or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other
- Why did Sony wait until now to tell PSN users that their personal information may have been compromised?
- The nature of the intrusion required that we undertake an extensive and thorough investigation of the matter, which took considerable effort and time. We needed to make sure that we knew and understood the facts before providing the appropriate notice to PlayStation Network users.
Via [US PlayStation Blog]
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Comments
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Hell to the No. This is something they should have been working on a long f***ing time. Instead of having the kind of bullshit, screw-up answer of "We'll fix it as the problem persists." I seem to recall one of the PS3 hack-groups warning of this. Sony if my cc info gets screwed because of your meandering on the issue I will sue the ever-loving piss out of you.
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"Why was Sony not prepared for a compromise of its network?"
That has nothing to do with the current investigation. They flat out do not want to answer that one. Pussies!
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Would be nice to get a free avatar pack or something.
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To quote Brian from Family Guy " Ummm WHAT?!?!?"
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"
top_tw_tech RT @davecazz: well looks like my creditcard got stolen and used from the playstation network. someone racked up $2000 in purchases
Twitter - seconds ago"
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PSN is down, so how could someone "steal" their credit card info and use it to buy PSN products? Thats sounds BS to me. If it was used for something else, then its plausible..
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A. We cannot comment on this matter at this time as the investigation is still going.
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You don't have to provide PSN with anything other than basic information, which you could provide falsely and still obtain an account, using PSN cards to make purchases, and using other features such as Netflix on a dedicated Blu Ray player. Anyone who is really worried about this knows nothing about identity protection. If you don't want people to get at your information, guys, don't post it to the Internet! Those who want it will get it and abuse it!
Sony is working as efficiently and as properly as any other company would that would be put in this position. They could have done a million worse things. They could have provided redundant and useless information. Typical Fanboys still would have complained.
Point here is that this is routine. The only reason I would expect compensation of ANY sort is for two reasons: some games are now USELESS because of lack of PSN access and that I'm a paying PS+ member and I'm now missing out on what I paid for so that this could be fixed. I'll wait but it had best be worth it to me, the consumer.
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