Sony's PlayStation network downed, user data compromised

Sony’s PlayStation Network went offline abruptly on April 20 and has remained disabled since, the victim of an apparent attack by hackers (or as Sony put it, “an illegal and unauthorized intrusion”). The Network serves as the infrastructure for all online multiplayer games on the console, as well as for other services such as Netflix movie/TV show rentals and Qriocity music downloads. It is used not only by the PlayStation 3 but by Sony’s portable gaming device, the PlayStation Portable or PSP. Just two weeks ago, Sony had announced that there were 75 million accounts on the PlayStation Network.

It was particularly frustrating here in the Philippines as the Network’s downtime started right when Holy Week vacation did. Many a working employee was looking forward to catching up on their gaming during the break but were unable to do so when it came to engaging with other players online in games like the “Call of Duty” series. Most games are playable offline but the occasional title does require an online connection to PSN for functionality and progress syncing.

It’s been speculated that activist group Anonymous is behind the attack but they have made no claim to it. Certain members of popular online forum 4chan.org have also been alleged to be responsible but thus far there has been no evidence presented, and no official claims from either party have been made.

Frustrating to many Americans, the disabled network also means they can’t access movie rentals or shows they subscribe to, like The Office.

Things became progressively worse for Sony when, a week into the Network’s shutdown, on April 26, it was revealed in an official blog post that Sony had discovered that certain user information had been compromised in the intrusion, and that outside online security firms’ services had been engaged to investigate the matter. This troubled many users, particularly those who had used the PSN for credit card transactions to download games, movies, music, TV shows or other content. Information that may have been acquired illegally included billing addresses and history, passwords, user handles and credit card information. It was urged that once the PSN was back up and running that users change their passwords just in case.

Currently, Sony expected to have some services back up “within a week,” but could not give a definite date as to when full functionality would return. What’s keeping the Network down right now is actually their efforts to fortify their security to prevent this kind of attack and downtime from ever happening again. This is the longest the PSN has ever been disabled since it began in November of 2006.