PSN Data Breach

[brownie]

For anyone else who has a Playstation Network account, the network had a data breach last week which prompted Sony to take the network down (troubling part is that now those of us with accounts can't look at them to see what information is in our account, my is old and I haven't accessed it in a few years.)

Here's the release, although without that account access it's hard to know what information of yours might have been compromised.


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. [removed section on credit reporting and government agencies]
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

[WDWfanatic742]

Add me to those affected. I have had three different PS3's and owned one since the day they came out, and this is the worst thing that has happened to the system by far. I feel for Sony throughout this entire situation, but their PR has been absolutely horrible. Takes them 6+ days to give official word that users credit card information 'might' have been compromised. It's a mess.

Got a friend that works at a major developer for Sony too and they aren't getting any other info from Sony either...

[brownie]

Add me to those affected. I have had three different PS3's and owned one since the day they came out, and this is the worst thing that has happened to the system by far. I feel for Sony throughout this entire situation, but their PR has been absolutely horrible. Takes them 6+ days to give official word that users credit card information 'might' have been compromised. It's a mess.

Got a friend that works at a major developer for Sony too and they aren't getting any other info from Sony either...

Within a week is actually pretty quick. Typically companies, when they're required to report by law, have to do it within a reasonable time. This is usually defined as 30-45 days. There are exceptions to the time requirement, especially if it's being investigated by law enforcement. Some of the major breaches that have been reported in the past have actually been reported some months after the breach occurred because of this.

What makes this one a real problem is that there are probably a lot of users on the network who are minors. I'm thinking there were probably people who wanted to wait longer make the notification but I have a feeling the demographics of their user base helped to speed up the process.

I don't like the fact that they've shut us out so we can't verify what information of ours might have been compromised. I know I don't have any credit card information but I can't remember if I had to give them my date of birth or not.

[WDWfanatic742]

The difference is that this shut down everything online for the PS3 and everyone noticed that something was wrong, yet there was no communication at all into what was going on. There were just so many rumors and gaming websites asking Sony for answers and not getting any response. It just bothers me that they weren't/aren't more open with what and who was affected.

I just much rather have the information that credit cards MIGHT have been compromised a few days/weeks earlier than knowing that it HAS been compromised. I know for sure that birth date is in the form when you register a new account.

I got enough backups on my bank accounts that I won't have any trouble if something happens, I just wasn't happy with the communication to us. Now I just want to play some of my new games online that I just got a week ago before all of this happened...

[brownie]

I hear you. The fact that they shut it down without explanation made it a bigger problem. The shut down tells me they were pretty sure there was a breach, and by shutting it down you tip off the people who committed the breach that you know.