PS3 Network down. (2 Viewers)

[gouldberg]

^^

That message seems to echoed across the entire Xbox community that I know. PS3 is great in terms of being a reliable system with free online gaming but free online means you get a bunch of immature and quite frankly stupid people using it. I know a few people that have had Xbox's for 2/3 years with no problems, others that have gone through 3 or 4 consoles in 12 months, but they all say it's the greatest online experience out of all the options.

PS3 seem to have shot themselves in the foot with this. Moving to Xbox seems to be the message coming from quite a few PS3 users, and if I had the money I would. As I don't I will be clinging onto my Playstation until Christmas before making the cross over, and will then just keep my PS3 for classic PS2 games like Metal Gear Solid 2.

 

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[Marty]

^^

That message seems to echoed across the entire Xbox community that I know. PS3 is great in terms of being a reliable system with free online gaming but free online means you get a bunch of immature and quite frankly stupid people using it. I know a few people that have had Xbox's for 2/3 years with no problems, others that have gone through 3 or 4 consoles in 12 months, but they all say it's the greatest online experience out of all the options.

PS3 seem to have shot themselves in the foot with this. Moving to Xbox seems to be the message coming from quite a few PS3 users, and if I had the money I would. As I don't I will be clinging onto my Playstation until Christmas before making the cross over, and will then just keep my PS3 for classic PS2 games like Metal Gear Solid 2.

 

[gouldberg]

Mines an old fat 60GB. They won't touch those things with a bargepole at the moment

 

[Marty]

Mines an old fat 60GB. They won't touch those things with a bargepole at the moment

Should still be able to get £100 or so, the 360 250gb is only £179.99 now.

 

[Coventry La La La]

Also if you have any ps3 game's they might be worth something to go toward's you're xbox 360 saving's, You could also go down the cheap path of buying a cheap 360 off ebay.

 

[ajsccfc]

The PSN hack is way worse than the RROD thing. That obviously pissed off a hell of a lot of Xbox owners, but it doesn't compare to the potential fraud of tens of millions of peoples' personal details and credit cards.

 

[Coventry La La La]

'Sony's strategy was heavy handed'

A global IT security expert has this morning stated that "Sony could learn a few lessons from Microsoft" amid the current PSN crisis.

Phil Lieberman, CEO and founder of Lieberman Software issued a statement this morning in reaction to the PSN outage.



“Sony's strategy has triggered the 'nuclear option'.”

"Taking a baseball bat to a hornet’s nest is never an advisable strategy," Lieberman explained, "Sony’s strategy in defending its intellectual property was heavy handed and has triggered the “nuclear option” with those that it engaged. Perhaps Sony could learn a few lessons from Microsoft in how it has handled Xbox 360 and Kinect intellectual property."

The statement continues, "You can be sure that the CIO and CSO at Sony responsible for this situation will probably not be fired or held accountable for their poor decisions. Similarly, the auditor responsible for the Sony account will similarly (in all probability and looking at these situations historically) not be held accountable."

"The loss of your personal information will (not likely) be nothing more than a “cost of doing business” for this type of company-you will take the pain and they will take a hit to their reputation (maybe)."

Sony now expects PSN to be back up by 4 May.

 

[ajsccfc]

Apparently passwords and perhaps even card details were kept as plain text rather than hashed or encrypted in any way. If true that's bordering on criminal contempt of data protection.

 

[ajsccfc]

Credit cards are apparently ok:

All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

From Sony USA

 

[Coventry La La La]

Sony warns of almost 25 million extra user detail theft

Sony has warned that almost 25 million extra gaming users may have had their personal details taken in a hacker attack.
On Monday, it had taken the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) service offline after a security breach.
Sony said the user data issue related specifically to SOE and emerged as it was investigating the problem.
Last week, Sony admitted that the personal details of 77m Playstation users may have been stolen by hackers.
'Cyber-attacks'

In a message to its customers, Sony said: "We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company."
However, it added that "on 1 May we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen".
Sony was quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency as saying that the latest incident occurred on 16 and 17 April.
This was earlier than the larger Playstation user security breach.

Sony said that during the most recently discovered security breach, names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and gender information was taken.
Additionally, direct debit details of around 10,700 customers in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany were stolen, as were the credit or debit card details of some 12,700 non-US customers.

Broader investigation ​

Sony explained that the information included card numbers and expiry dates, but said that it was taken from a 2007 database which was securely encrypted.

Spokeswoman Taina Rodriguez was quoted by AP as saying that there was no evidence as yet that the stolen information had been used for illicit financial gain.
The suspension of SOE, which is based in San Diego, California, was announced in a brief statement on its website, Station.com.

Multiplayer games including DC Universe and Facebook-based Fortune League were unavailable as a result.
"We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily," the company said.

"In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down, effective immediately," it added.


Powering up?

The company had previously said that it would get the Playstation network up-and-running again this week.
It said users would see a phased re-introduction of gaming, movie and music download services.
Playstation Network has been unavailable since 20 April.

 

[Disorganised1]

Also if you have any ps3 game's they might be worth something to go toward's you're xbox 360 saving's, You could also go down the cheap path of buying a cheap 360 off ebay.

Got my first second hand 360 from CEX ~ no problems until the disk unit died.

 

[Coventry La La La]

I had a brand new one (elite) got rrod twice and had to be sent to Germany for repair. Still prefer xbox though you can't beat xboxlive for entertainment.

 

[Coventry La La La]

It's still offline

 

[Coventry La La La]

Approximate amount of time the PlayStation Network has been down:

http://psndowntime.com/

 

[BenInTurin]

Glad I'm not obsessed with online gaming like some people are. Last time I check all my games worked fine in off line mode. Never going to pay for online play so I'll never get an xbox.

Will be cool to get some free stuff when it comes back online though!

 

[SkyBlueMania]

I pretty much only play games online, except for fifa and pes with pals, so this has been a total pain in the hole for me. It was handy when i was revising for exams the last few weeks though, removed the temptation!

 

[SkyBluesAndy]

Glad I'm not obsessed with online gaming like some people are. Last time I check all my games worked fine in off line mode. Never going to pay for online play so I'll never get an xbox.

Will be cool to get some free stuff when it comes back online though!

Exactly my thoughts, some people act like its a matter of life and death because they can't play a computer game online for a couple of weeks! Jeez its worth waiting especially as we've never paid a penny to play online.

 

[Coventry La La La]

PS3 trade-ins on the rise as PSN down time drags on

Retailers report increase in users swapping Sony's console for cash/Xbox 360s

"In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades," said one store manager at a major UK retailer.

"However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 percent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead."

An independent retail source based in the South West said he'd seen a "massive increase" in the number of PS3s traded in recent weeks, with most swapping for an Xbox 360. The customers in question were described as being in "the hardcore online shooter crowd".

Belgian indie retailer Gameswap also told the site. "At the end of each month people come to sell their consoles. People that need money [to pay bills]. What's different this time around is that that they are bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don't want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.

"We're just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 percent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We've only sold 30 to 40 percent of our inventory right now."

The PSN was taken offline on April 20. Sony is aiming to have the service up and running again this month.

 

[Covstu]

Sony have just handed a huge slice of the market back to Microsoft with this!! Some of the People who play online play it a silly length of time so i bet this was killing them with the network down! The xbox network seems much better anyway but obviously you have to pay so that might be why!!

 

[Marty]

Very small price to pay for something that actually works very well, It's only like £3.30 ish a month anyway at the very top price, The one reason I chose an Xbox360 over the PS3 is because sony rip you off. it's like you buy the console, want to play it online costs, extra for the ethernet cable, want to chat, again going to cost you, you want to play in HD? that'll be extra. :jerkit:

 

[Coventry La La La]

Still down....

Sony = :facepalm:

At least I've still got my xbox360

 

[ajsccfc]

Very small price to pay for something that actually works very well, It's only like £3.30 ish a month anyway at the very top price, The one reason I chose an Xbox360 over the PS3 is because sony rip you off. it's like you buy the console, want to play it online costs, extra for the ethernet cable, want to chat, again going to cost you, you want to play in HD? that'll be extra. :jerkit:

All of that is free with PS3 outside of buying an HDMI cable for a few quid.

I've never paid to play or access online and the ethernet cable comes with.

 

[Coventry La La La]

You don't get a microphone with it though causing online play to be a very dull place I rarely find anyone with a microphone on PS3...

 

[ajsccfc]

Oh, chat as in voice chat? I thought the messaging thing.

 

[Covstu]

yes messenging....why isnt it working!!!

 

[ajsccfc]

Any word on these free games we'll be getting? I assume they'll be crap, but hey; free crap is still free.

 

[gouldberg]

Since Tuesday there hasn't been much word of anything.

 

[Disorganised1]

Sony taking legal advice on if they can sue anyone - which suggests they have a footprint to follow. In the meantime they are making radical changes to their security - ie using an algorythm that doesn't have a known defect.

 

[Coventry La La La]

Sony PlayStation relaunch begins

Sony has announced that it will begin restoring its online PlayStation video game network on Sunday.

The phased restoration of services will begin in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

The move comes more than three weeks after Sony discovered a huge security breach that led to the theft of personal data from millions of users.

The firm said its expects to have the network, including Qriocity services, fully restored by the end of May.

The restoration of Japanese and Asian services would begin soon, it added.

Sony said it had implemented "new and additional security measures" that would provide users with better protection.

These were designed in conjunction with a number of external security firms, the company said, and include increased encryption levels and additional firewalls.

"I'd like to send my sincere apologies for the inconvenience this incident has caused you, and want to thank you for all the kind patience you've shown as we worked through the restoration process,"

said Kazuo Hirai, Sony's executive deputy president.

He added the company was taking "aggressive action" to resolve the security issues and was making "consumer protection a full-time, company-wide commitment".

The company said it would be offering a "welcome back" package to users that included some "premium content".

Sony first discovered the security breach, which led to the theft of personal data from 100m online accounts, on 20 April.

Many users were upset about the company taking two days to contact the police and almost a week to inform those people affected.

Sony hired outside specialist cyber-security firms to investigate the breach, and earlier this month blamed the online vigilante group Anonymous for indirectly allowing it.

The group has denied being involved in the theft.

 

[ajsccfc]

All existing PlayStation Network members will be able to access the following from PlayStation Store*:
Two PS3 games from the following list:

• LittleBigPlanet
• Infamous*
• Wipeout HD/Fury
• Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty
• Dead Nation*

 

[SkyBlueMania]

where did you hear this buddy?

 

[ajsccfc]

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/