Tag Archives: psn network update

PSN Back Online

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You heard it from us at Frost magazine – the Playstation Network is now back on line.

Although the Playstation Store still comes up saying, ‘currently undergoing maintenance’, all the other features appear to be working.

Yesterday (15th), we told you that you were able to download the latest update for your PS3 – version 3.61. Well, today you can get access to all your account information, including billing and card details, although we are sure that it won’t be long before the rest of the service is up and running

Attempting to sign in today brings up the password change request. There are no options to cancel this – you have to change it, although thankfully it doesn’t ask for the old password. After that, we recommend you head straight for account management and amend all the personal info as necessary. There is also an option for the password to be entered before any action is completed in the store like check out – which, while infuriating to some owners, is probably a wise option considering what information might have been stolen.

Sony were forced to close its network and implement new security protocol after the details of over 77 million users were stolen from their servers.

PSN Update: PSN Back Online In Parts Of U.S.

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The Sony Store and PSN are now back on line in certain parts of the U.S.

In an amazing move that is sure to surprise users of PS3, Sony appears to have brought the deadline of bringing its network back ahead of the speculated deadline of the 31st. And although the PSN is only fully active in the United States right now, UK owners of PS3 can download the latest update (3.61) for their machines today (15th).

In the US, users are requested to change their passwords after installing the update to take advantage of the new features as well as the ‘thank you for your patience package’ offered by Sony after their service was hijacked and taken off line nearly a month ago. More than 77 million users had their personal details stolen.

You can be sure more news will follow. Keep your browser on Frost for all the latest updates.

 

PSN Update 4: Network Not Up Until May 31st and new Xbox 360 Counter Update

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Update 5 (PSN is now back in parts of the US but not the UK yet)

The PSN Network won’t be up until the end of the month now. Sony is planning to have the system back online by May 31st. It had hoped to have at least partial service restored by the end of this week.  Gamers will now be wondering if they will ever get back online. The network has been down for almost three weeks now and many have been forced to find other activities. The attack is now thought to be one of the biggest in history.

Businesses reliant on the Sony network have lost millions of dollars. Capcom’s senior Vice president Christian Svensson said he was ‘frustrated and upset’. Many developers have felt paralysed by the outage.

It has now been 4 days without an update from Sony. Can they hold onto their fan base with the lack of information? There is only so long fans will wait.

In a further blow to Sony, leaked information from www.product-reviews.net has confirmed that rival Microsoft is planning to update its Xbox 360 dashboard later this month. The update will come out between Thursday 19th and May 30th. It will bring in a brand new disc format, known as XGD3, with anti-piracy measures designed to increase security.

Apparently the new update will support Paypal on the Xbox marketplace to further protect users against potential online fraud.

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Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Update 5

PSN Update 3: Sony Blames Anonymous

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Sony has blamed the online group anonymous for the crash in its network. Anonymous has famously been responsible for defending free speech across the internet. They most recently ran campaigns against companies for withdrawing support from the site Wikileaks.

Sony reported that it had found a file on one of it servers. They claim the file was named anonymous and read, ‘we are legion’.

The group Anonymous had denied any involvement in the data theft. It is thought Anonymous sympathised with three hackers whom Sony sued, this was supposedly the motivation for the attack. The hackers were sued after they successfully found a way to play pirated software on the ps3.

Sony argues that a denial of service attack (which overloads the targets servers with traffic) was undertaken by Anonymous. They claim this caused a distraction allowing the hack.

The explanation is unlikely to impress the millions of gamers who are still unable to play on the PSN network, or the many more millions on Sony Online Entertainment (Which was also taken offline 2 days ago).

Anonymous have strongly denied any involvement in the attack. They argue they would have nothing to gain from attacking a network used by many of their sympathisers.

Experts had previously suggested it was unlikely Anonymous were involved. The majority opinion remains that this action was by major criminals. Sony said today themselves that this was a, ‘highly sophisticated and very professional attack’.

Is blaming Anonymous almost two weeks after the attack (with the network still offline) an increasingly desperate action? Even if Anonymous’ s attack was a distraction it is no excuse for the lack of proper security. Regulators say customer data should have been encrypted. Sony now faces a major fine from the UK information commissioner’s office for failing to secure customer information.

Now the New York attorney general has subpoenaed Sony. The states top law official wants to know more about how hackers were able to access people’s data.

Sony is offering 30 days of PlayStation plus (the paid version of the PlayStation network) to customers as a means of compensation. Users can try out demos, get the latest game upgrades and betas. There will also be a forced Firmware upgrade. This will help patch up the hack and offer increased protection when the network goes back online.

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First Update

Second Update

PSN Update

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Earlier article

Sony today announced that friends lists and trophy data are unaffected by the PSN Network outage. The news will come as a big relief to gamers, some of whom have spent months and years building up their achievements. Sony has also said it hopes to have some parts of the network back up and running by May 3rd, that would be almost two weeks after the initial outage.

In another crumb of comfort for gamers Sony has said it will do something special for its customers for their, ’extraordinary patience’. It will have to be something momentous if they have any hope of turning around this PR disaster.

Currently Sony has found no evidence that credit card data has been stolen (data it claims was encrypted in contrast to other data such as names and addresses). The safest policy at this stage would be to check your bank statements for any unusual activity.

Sony may now face a large penalty fine from the UK information commissioner’s office for failing to secure customer information such as names and addresses. However, given the maximum fine is only £500,000, it is likely to be the least of the technology giant’s worries.

Speculation remains rife as to who was behind the attack. Currently the consensus view among experts is that major criminals are responsible, given its huge scale.

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2nd Update

3rd Update

PSN Network goes down.

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PSN Network goes down –

Another day – another day without the Playstation Network (PSN) being up and running.
Shut down on the 20th for what many gamers thought might be just a couple of hours, annoyingly hours then turned into days and with bank holiday Monday now well and truly over and the Royal Wedding on the horizon – online gaming on the PS3 has now ground to a complete halt.

If the news reports are to be believed then our worst fears have been confirmed.
“Hackers have seized control of gamers details” “Sony are asking for gamers to check their accounts for ID fraud”

The current situation has got gamers screaming at their screens ‘Just what the hell is going on Sony!’
Sony came clean a few days ago admitting that the service was compromised by hackers. The outside ‘intrusion’ was apparently so severe that it warranted one of the key people in the high level of the food chain within Sony to throw the ‘kill switch’ to prevent further damage. As a result, the company disabled the service Wednesday evening last week to investigate the matter, an official statement indicated.

Spokesperson for Sony Patrick Seybold said “An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services,” Temporary closure to the service was done “to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward”

Regrettably this is not the first time Sony has shut their PSN Network and then blamed the issue on outside ‘intrusion’. Scouring other sites gives clues that point the finger towards hacking group ‘Anonymous’, however they were quick on Thursday to deny any involvement in the matter. The group is reportedly not happy with Sony over its treatment of hacker George Hotz – you know the chap, the one who became infamous over his hacking into Iphones and was filmed having hacked into a PS3 so that it would run an open source version of Linux.

This was like a kick in the teeth for Sony; the PS3 was previously thought of as virtually un-hackable that was until Hotz got his mitts on it, so they promptly took him to court and charged him with copyright infringement. This intrusion is a bit like ripples on a pond because it risks drawing out other hackers who might have an axe to grind with Sony or might see it as an opportunity to gain reputation.

All the while gamers are the ones left suffering and Sony stupidly left its gamers in the dark for quite some time and in doing so risked damaging their reputation.

Understandably they are getting angry. One gamer posts on his site: ‘Thanks to you Sony I had to talk to my wife over Easter – thanks a lot!’ and there are some rumours / propaganda circulating from the XBOX fraternity urging gamers to now switch sides and get an XBOX if they want to be playing online by the next bank holiday.
So why is this situation driving gamers into a frenzy? Well, PS3 users rely on the network to play online content and gain enhanced features from their games. Titles such as the recent release of Mortal Kombat and Crysis 2 are heavily dependant on online play; to put it simply without it games have limited life spans, PSN is also the source for demos, trailers and downloadable content and the main centre for gamers to play together online. Far be it without the network gamers would have no choice but to be social again and we can’t have that can we?
Jokes aside there is a very serious side to this, because if your account details have been compromised, copied or cloned it will be really hard to check for internet or identity fraud until it is too late. So the advice is to go into your bank (rather than online) and check all your statements for anything suspicious. Any questionable withdrawals or payments you should raise directly with the bank’s fraud team. Passwords are equally a big issue because many people use the same passwords for a range of different accounts. It makes sense for all users to change their passwords.

In terms of when the PSN will be back up and running Sony posted this blog yesterday “We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.”
For some gamers, a week is way too long to wait. I await with baited breath, Sony have always had a tight grip on their console network and it has always been free to users. Let’s hope this matter gets resolved.