URGENT: All PS3 owners must read

Keero

Tribe of Judah Membership Administrator
From: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-and-qriocity/

Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve the current outage of PlayStation Network & Qriocity services. We are currently working to send a similar message to the one below via email to all of our registered account holders regarding a compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems. These malicious actions have also had an impact on your ability to enjoy the services provided by PlayStation Network and Qriocity including online gaming and online access to music, movies, sports and TV shows. We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.

We’re working day and night to ensure it is done as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and feedback.

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:

Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
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 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; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; 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 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 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 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

Huge blow to Sony. :( Make sure that if you're using your Credit Card, you take the necessary precautions to keep outsiders from using it. What a mess. >_<
 
I think I just threw up in my mouth.

My wife and I use our Visa debit cards to pay for items and services almost exclusively. If we have to cancel our current cards and wait several days for new cards, it's going to be a monster headache.

I also have several bills set to auto pay. If I have to update billing information on all my auto pay accounts, I lose an entire afternoon.

I'll also have to watch my and my wife's bank account activity very, very closely, which means taking even more time to guard myself against identity theft and fraud.

This...is a catastrophe.

A class action lawsuit against Sony seems inevitable. The financial and public relations damage to Sony is and will be staggering.

EDIT: On a more positive note: I am SO glad I use different passwords for all my online accounts.
 
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Sony is Sony. Nothing surprising here.

That's why I put my faith in Microsoft the friendly cold, soulless, evil, money grubbing, uber-corporation /me nods as Internet Explorer is hacked for all my personal info.
 
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Google = Skynet. You know it's true.

He who controls the media controls the population. Google owns minds. /conspiracy theorist
 
I was starting to wonder if going to the bank on Monday to get a new debit card was going overboard. Now I think I can justify the hassle.

EDIT: I've already requested and printed my 3 free credit reports. Everyone gets 1 report from each of the 3 consumer credit reporting companies once a year, so you all might as well request yours, too.
 
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LOL. Faith in any tech is misguided for sure. I'm a fan of how Google has approached security. (Incoming 7 minute tour of data centers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SCZzgfdTBo&feature=player_embedded

That video seemed to focus on the physical side of security. Due to (personally) not knowing anything about software I would not know how secure Google actually is and that would be where my concerns were. I must say that video is trying so hard to be serious and reassuring all I can think of is a parody video for while the guy is talking...

Quotes in that video rife for comedy...

1."Inside a Google data center there are thousands upon thousands of machines" Cut to video of kitchen with some fat dude trying to get a candy bar out of the vending machine.

2."Only the necessary operating systems and hardware are installed" As they show them working on computers fastidiously you see a computer in the background playing Call of Duty.

3."Access to Google data centers is tightly controlled" When the car pulls up to the guard post the guard steps out of the booth while putting on a latex glove.

4."For hard drives that have reached the end of their life Google has a destruction process to further insure that none of the data on that hard drive can ever be accessed" As the crusher, um, crushes Employees gather around holding lighters in the air and chanting crush, crush, CRUSH!

5."If the security team spots something (the girl actually pointing gets me) out of the ordinary on the video surveillance (add cut to monster movie footage here) they are trained to immediately respond and investigate."

6."Google maintains relationships with the local law enforcement and should the need arise they can be called inside." Show lovestruck girl twirling phone cord while on the phone to Police. Cop comes in, they embrace, she gives him a jar, he opens jar, he leaves.

7. "Furthermore Google also employs additional safeguards to protect it's users data that we do not disclose publicly" I'm thinking the entire facility is just a decoy and the actual data is shown buried in a shoebox in an undisclosed backyard.

On a different subject, um not that I have a specific problem with it but after seeing all white people you go to the all black video monitoring people. I get the vague sense Google might be trying to be politically correct in some manner or possibly that office has some nepotism in their hiring policies :p .

...Anywho that concludes my pointless post for the day I return your serious thread to you people. Thanks for looking out for the PS3 people Keero :) .
 
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I've already requested and printed my 3 free credit reports. Everyone gets 1 report from each of the 3 consumer credit reporting companies once a year, so you all might as well request yours, too.

I heard a great tip about credit reports, because you get 1 free from each agency you can stagger it and get one ever 4 months. Works great.


That video seemed to focus on the physical side of security. Due to (personally) not knowing anything about software I would not know how secure Google actually is and that would be where my concerns were. I must say that video is trying so hard to be serious and reassuring all I can think of is a parody video for while the guy is talking...

Quotes in that video rife for comedy...
1."Inside a Google data center there are thousands upon thousands of machines" Cut to video of kitchen with some fat dude trying to get a candy bar out of the vending machine.

2."Only the necessary operating systems and hardware are installed" As they show them working on computers fastidiously you see a computer in the background playing Call of Duty.

3."Access to Google data centers is tightly controlled" When the car pulls up to the guard post the guard steps out of the booth while putting on a latex glove.

4."For hard drives that have reached the end of their life Google has a destruction process to further insure that none of the data on that hard drive can ever be accessed" As the crusher, um, crushes Employees gather around holding lighters in the air and chanting crush, crush, CRUSH!

5."If the security team spots something (the girl actually pointing gets me) out of the ordinary on the video surveillance (add cut to monster movie footage here) they are trained to immediately respond and investigate."

6."Google maintains relationships with the local law enforcement and should the need arise they can be called inside." Show lovestruck girl twirling phone cord while on the phone to Police. Cop comes in, they embrace, she gives him a jar, he opens jar, he leaves.

7. "Furthermore Google also employs additional safeguards to protect it's users data that we do not disclose publicly" I'm thinking the entire facility is just a decoy and the actual data is shown buried in a shoebox in an undisclosed backyard.

On a different subject, um not that I have a specific problem with it but after seeing all white people you go to the all black video monitoring people. I get the vague sense Google might be trying to be politically correct in some manner or possibly that office has some nepotism in their hiring policies .

...Anywho that concludes my pointless post for the day I return your serious thread to you people. Thanks for looking out for the PS3 people Keero .

LOL yeah the security guard nepotism was slightly odd.
 
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Does the PSN not have a Sony version of the Xbox Live Gold Cards?

Also, I remember some people saying that PSN was "free" and therefore was superior to Xbox Live... so what is it doing with your credit card number?
 
Does the PSN not have a Sony version of the Xbox Live Gold Cards?

Also, I remember some people saying that PSN was "free" and therefore was superior to Xbox Live... so what is it doing with your credit card number?
Online gaming via PSN is indeed free. Buying digitally distributed games (or choosing to subscribe to premium services) is not. Thus, cards get used for those purposes.
 
I called customer service recently and spoke with a representative for about 25 minutes. The rep was helpful and was able to answer all my questions.

I also requested and printed my free credit report from each of the 3 reporting agencies, which cost about 20 pages, ink (which is apparently derived from unicorn blood), and 20-30 minutes.

My wife and I went to our local bank earlier today, shut down the debit card tied to the PSN account, and had new credit cards with new numbers printed. The visit took about 20 minutes.

When I got home, I updated billing account information for those services affected. That took me roughly another 15-20 minutes.

So the good news is that dealing with the fallout from Sony's colossal security fail didn't eat up as much time as I had anticipated.

Nevertheless, having to take action because of Sony's failure was a nuisance and required me and my wife to take time out of our Monday (usually our most productive day of the week since it's my wife's day off) to protect ourselves against identity theft.

Part of me is still raging at Sony; another part wants them to clean up their mess, get their act together, and minimize the damage to the PlayStation brand.

If this debacle doesn't put a dent in the traditional Sony hubris, I don't know what will.
 
If this is true, then I have zero sympathy for Sony.
 
Does the PSN not have a Sony version of the Xbox Live Gold Cards?

Also, I remember some people saying that PSN was "free" and therefore was superior to Xbox Live... so what is it doing with your credit card number?

/trying to be as nice as possible...

(not to completely intrude here but...) If you want the PSN to be anywhere near as good as Xbox Live, you have to pay $50/yr...it's call PSN+ or something... :p

/end...

If this is true, then I have zero sympathy for Sony.

ANYWAYS... Yes...things do not look good for Sony at all right now...and many are questioning the "welcome back" promo and how it seems like nothing but a con to try to bring more people to PSN+ ...

/Achievement Unlocked: Dis Sony 50 times in 24 hours... (+500 GS) :D
 
As an aside, I can't comment/like any of your FB posts, Xion. >.>
 
As an aside, I can't comment/like any of your FB posts, Xion. >.>
I thought that was just me.

And, in defense of pre-fail Sony, PSN+ owns XBL Gold in most ways. :p

/has both

/or did before PSN crashed
 
I would love to pay for XBL if the Xbox had games I actually cared to play for longer than one week.

/wasted two 3-month cards so far
 
And, in defense of pre-fail Sony, PSN+ owns XBL Gold in most ways. :p

/has both

I know many people who have both and they say the opposite... Plus my sister's boyfriends lets us play on his, and I found PSN+ to be very lacking compared to Xbox live...but anyways...on to the news...

PSN to be back up...May 31st... http://ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1166810p1.html

As an aside, I can't comment/like any of your FB posts, Xion. >.>
I thought that was just me.

Fix't! I thought I gave you both permissions when I added you as friends...but I must've missed it :p
 
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