PSN most stores back and the Welcome Back Pack

Important Step for Service Restoration

Today our global network and security teams at Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment began the final stages of internal testing of the new system, an important step towards restoring PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.

As previously mentioned, we?ve been working around the clock to rebuild the network and enhance protections of your personal data. It?s our top priority to ensure your data is safe when you begin using the services again.

We understand that many of you are eager to again enjoy the PlayStation Network and Qriocity entertainment services that you love, so we wanted you to be aware of this milestone and our progress. We will provide additional updates as soon as we can.

Linky


...........................

A Letter from Howard Stringer

Dear Friends,

I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you.

Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we?ve all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. We will settle for nothing less.

To date, there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused, and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We are also moving ahead with plans to help protect our customers from identity theft around the world. A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.

As we have announced, we will be offering a ?Welcome Back? package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.


As a company we ? and I ? apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible.

I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It?s a fair question. As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had ? or had not ? been taken.

As a result of what we discovered we notified you of the breach. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defenses will be even stronger.

In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event ? a criminal attack on us ? and on you ? and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.


In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for ? all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony.

With best regards,
Howard Stringer

Linky
 
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US only? What about the rest of the world?

Edit: Wait, nevermind
 
When we finally get switched back on, 77 million people trying to sign into PSN at the same time and crash the servers. :lol:
 
Security Expert: Sony Knew Its Software Was Obsolete Months Before PSN Breach

Hearing
The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers


In congressional testimony this morning, Dr. Gene Spafford of Purdue University said that Sony was using outdated software on its servers ? and knew about it months in advance of the recent security breaches that allowed hackers to get private information from over 100 million user accounts.

According to Spafford, security experts monitoring open Internet forums learned months ago that Sony was using outdated versions of the Apache Web server software, which "was unpatched and had no firewall installed." The issue was "reported in an open forum monitored by Sony employees" two to three months prior to the recent security breaches, said Spafford.

Spafford made his comments in a hearing convened by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. Sony was invited to participate in the hearing, but declined to attend. In a letter to the committee, Sony said it has added automated software monitoring and enhanced data security and encryption to its systems in the wake of the recent security breaches.

"If Dr. Spafford's assessment is accurate, it's inexcusable that Sony not only ran obsolete software on servers containing confidential data, but also that the company continued to do so after this information was publicly disclosed," said Jeff Fox, Consumer Reports Technology Editor.

Linky
 
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I still don't see what the fuss is all about lol. There's no hard evidence that anything has actually been took and nobody has been the victim of anything yet.
 
I still don't see what the fuss is all about lol. There's no hard evidence that anything has actually been took and nobody has been the victim of anything yet.

According to Sony, they are quite sure that information was taken. What has not been confirmed is its misuse. I've seen reports that passwords were hashed and credit card info may not have been included, so it's possible that most people are safe.
 
According to Sony, they are quite sure that information was taken. What has not been confirmed is its misuse. I've seen reports that passwords were hashed and credit card info may not have been included, so it's possible that most people are safe.

Yeah, I saw about the hashed passwords. I like how the media find this more important than the Tsunami that recently hit them over there. I know that's no excuse for not informing but I'm sure they've had a few problems going on over there, and still will have for a while.
 
American and European news.

Americans...

Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment International have made arrangements with Debix, Inc., one of the industry?s most reputable identity protection firms, to offer AllClear ID Plus at no cost to PlayStation Network and Qriocity account holders for 12 months from the time an account holder registers for the program.

Please note that we will start sending out activation emails for this program over the next few days, and you will have until June 18th to sign-up and redeem your code.
You will need to sign up directly through AllClearID, not on Sony?s websites, and details, including step-by-step instructions for the program, will be emailed to United States PSN and Qriocity Account holders soon.


Europeans...

As I have explained previously, creating a similar offering for the many countries within the SCEE region is a very complicated process. Each country has a different way of handling identity theft; some offer relatively sophisticated services whilst others are much more modest.

We are currently in the process of identifying how we manage this situation and once the programme is ready to launch, we will provide details of exactly which services are available in each country and explain how to sign up. We hope to do this early next week. (The protection or the PSN, which is due this week. <_<)

We will be offering PSN users the opportunity to select two PS3 games from a list of five, as well as offering PSP users the opportunity to choose two games from a list of four. We will let you know exactly what games are available very soon.

The games must be USA too.

I reckon... this being Sony...
Little Big Planet? :p
Modnation Racers?
Wipeout?
 
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Sony removes data posted by hackers, delays PlayStation restart

Data from 2001 product sweepstakes contest

* No fixed date for PlayStation Network restart

* No data leaked on credit card, social security info (Adds details)


TOKYO, May 7 (Reuters) - Sony said on Saturday it had removed from the Internet the names and partial addresses of 2,500 sweepstakes contestants that had been stolen by hackers and posted on a website, and said it did not know when it could restart its PlayStation video games network. The company, under fire since hackers accessed personal data from about 100 million user accounts of its PlayStation Network and PC-based online gaming services, said in a statement details posted on the inactive website also included three unconfirmed e-mail addresses.

The data came from customers who entered a 2001 product sweepstakes contest. The list did not include information on credit cards, social security numbers or passwords.

"The website was out of date and inactive when discovered as part of the continued attacks on Sony," Sony said, adding that the company took the website down shortly after finding out about the postings on Thursday. Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer apologised on Friday to users of the firm's PlayStation Network and other online services, breaking his silence on the massive data breach. The company said last Sunday that it would begin restoring services within the week but a spokeswoman said on Saturday this would not be possible, and that no date had been fixed for when services would resume.

Reuters
 
Rumoured from Japanese forum. About 3.61.

Enable password change "PlayStation 3" System Software Update ver.3.61 (soon)
At this point, "PlayStation Network" is not yet available.
"PlayStation Network" restart some services (soon)
Liable for the service will be resumed "will resume soon" PlayStation Network "service / feature" please see.
Getting signed - will need to change your password.
- Change the password by performing the procedure, "PlayStation Network" are some of the services can use.
"PSP" "PlayStation Portable" With regard to the password change, "PlayStation 3" I will guide you through the timing made it possible to change the password.
"PlayStation Network" full resumption of service (in May)
 
Rumour:

Sony's PlayStation Network might not be fully up and running online until May 31, the company has clarified.
Speaking to Bloomberg over the phone, PlayStation Tokyo spokesperson Shigenori Yoshida said Sony was still "uncertain" when it can resume the full suite of PSN services, including music service Qriocity.

He added that the plan to be back online by May 31 was "unchanged" - although his comment comes after Sony said it wanted to restart a partial PSN service by the end of last week.

"When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week," spokesperson Nick Caplin has since clarified.

"We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system.

Linky

Hopefully the online portion comes sooner.
 
if it is the 31st when it's finally back up and running then the offer they give better be a damn good one.
 
PSN Restoration Timeline Update
+ Posted by Patrick Seybold // Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media

I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can?t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We?re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.
 
I still don't see what the fuss is all about lol.
You mean aside from the three solid weeks of downtime thus far, and the now three additional weeks of downtime forecasted?
 
Christ just bring it back already! This is seriously annoying now and if it will take 3 more weeks I'll lose my mind!
 
Microsoft must be rubbing their hands with glee at this. With PSN down its made XBox Live the only online console service. I would love to see how this has affected sales of the PlayStation 3 and the XBox 360. i wouldn't be surprised if there's been a spike in XBox Consoles being sold.
 
would you rather all your money and details stolen?
Too late. Mr King in Nigeria no longer needs to transfer a small percentage of his deceased father's fortune to you, now that he can use your Visa...
 
From Playstation Japan... and translated.

?PlayStation Network? and ?Qriocity? and continued failure, I am sorry indeed.

As we told the other day with the latest information in regard to future service restart, will be conducted in stages on a regional basis to ensure the safety of our customers.

We are preparing to be able to resume service as soon as possible in Japan, and is now doing the verification stage for ensuring the safety and security, providing more advanced. Server to complete the relocation of more secure facilities, further strengthening the encryption, firewalls and expansion of new customers with peace of mind again ?PlayStation Network? and ?Qriocity? to stay in a We support the most. The monitoring and the introduction of warning systems facilitate early detection of cyber attacks, subjected to a system upgrade intended to eliminate vulnerabilities, established a system to ensure information management to protect important personal information of customers. For those of you committed to ensuring safety, but would take some time for some time now, humbly thank you for your understanding. For the latest information, this website will guide you at any time.

To everyone of our customers and partners, we deeply apologize for the inconvenience and inconvenience.

Linky
 
This is a pure disaster for Sony. I don't even wanna think about how much this is costing them, let alone how much revenue they're losing.
 
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