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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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PSN Update 2: Sony Closes Another Online Service as 100 Million Now Affected

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Sony’s and millions of users nightmare got even worse today as it emerged that not only had the play station network been hacked but also Sony’s Online Entertainment. Sony was forced to close the service which runs various online games.

Worse still the SOE breach was thought to have happened before the PSN network problems which raise numerous questions about Sony’s whole handling of the crisis. One expert said, ‘Inevitably people will be wondering if more is to come’. Names, addresses, emails, DOBs, numbers and this time Sony has also admitted some credit details card (Outside the US) were taken.

On Sunday Sony had said that it hoped to have some services up and running sometime this week, though nothing is certain. Users will need to use two methods to verify their account when PSN goes back online, because of the compromised security. The exact methods remain unclear.

Sony also hit back at reports that millions of credit card details had been taken, saying that too its knowledge this is untrue. They said, ‘there is no evidence our main credit card database was compromised’. We can only hope that everything gets back online as soon as possible.

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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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