Sony Clarifies PSN Breach Timeline
In lieu of the recent PSN fiasco that has ignited through Sony’s firewalls, questions have begun to pour into the inboxes of the entertainment giant as their customers try to understand how such a breach could have unraveled. Now Sony is doing their best to repair the situation and also provide answers as soon as it is manageable.
Patrick Seybold, Sony’s senior director for Corporate Communications and Social Media, posted on the PS Blog to address one of the most asked questions about the breach. Here is what Seybold had to share for those of you wondering about the brief timeline of events.
There’s a difference in timing between when we identified there was an intrusion and when we learned of consumers’ data being compromised. We learned there was an intrusion April 19th and subsequently shut the services down. We then brought in outside experts to help us learn how the intrusion occurred and to conduct an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the incident. It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach. We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly this afternoon.
For anyone interested in any of the frequently asked questions, a FAQ has also been posted which can be reached here.
In the meantime, hunker down a bit longer until next week, when a new firmware is expected to help sort the situation out and get you reconnected.
40 Responses to “Sony Clarifies PSN Breach Timeline”
This makes sense and i know a lot of people were upset for them waiting but they didn’t even know i mean forensic analysis takes days to complete whether its DNA or tech related but i’m glad they told us as soon as they knew what happened
I REALLY hope a new firmware comes to the PSP that will disable CFW psp’s from getting on the PSN. Tired of these cheaters messing with my SOCOM “expurience.”
The FAQ was posted yesterday around 1pm..
Playstation Lifestyle was doing a day of forensic analysis be to ensure it was safe to post it. :p
well, that is the trend..
Nevermind…it’s even older than that.
I think you should remember that the writers at PSLS have full time jobs and can not just drop their paying job duties to post an article when you feel they should. They have their own priorities to deal with…
And with this story they will always follow since they have to get past all those calling in blocking Sony’s phones to get comments from those sources they have so it takes time…
I wasn’t trying to be an ass, SPD. Although, it kind of came off that way. My apologies to PSL.
It’s all good. There’s definitely some days where many of us wish we could do this full time instead of our regular day jobs. :p
I never had any doubt…they obviously had to tell us eventually anyway so why would they wait?? A large corporation like Sony obviously knows how quickly they need to release information like this…Besides, as far as this leaked information goes, it really doesn’t make that big of a difference when you find out about it. You should always be watching your credit cards anyway and there really isn’t a whole lot you can do with the knowledge besides sit and wait to see if someone tries to use your info.
To be fair, when ever this happens to other corporations we don’t hear about it until after the dust settles. Sony isn’t getting a fair shake in all this and there is a double standard being applied by gamers and the gaming media.
i just came back from my college courses today and saw in that in my classes this whole incident was the topic for the day and EVERYBODY had the story WRONG! i tried to straighten things out but nobody would listen, their too hooked on switching to xbox and believing all the news has to say. i wanted to smack them all silly!
just cancel you credit card and get your identity protected, its as simple as that. I know it sucks right now that we can’t play online, but I’m trusting Sony that this all isn’t in vain and the PSN comes back stronger than ever. When the PSN is back up in some capacity they’ll ask us to change our passwords through a firmware update and all should be ready to go. I hope my trophies are ok though, don’t be messing with my precious trophies!
i have been playing on XBL the past few days and im bored to death on Live i am so ready to get back on PSN but i want sony to fix it properly so im glad they are taking their time to ensure its safe and secure before they let us back in. I just hope those hacker punks didnt do anything to my or anyone else account i know those trophies are virtual but i liked collecting them and i hope all our stuff we bought in the store is still in the download lists.
The people running to xbox are foolish. They’re not any safer. In fact, they had a breach and shut down that lasted 13 days…so the grass really isn’t greener. Maybe this will filter out the bad gamers, kiddies and idiots creating a purer gaming environment. I swear playing COD sometimes is like being an under paid babysitter.
Nothing to worry about just yet: http://kotaku.com/#!5796651/credit-card-companies-see-no-sign-of-psn-hack-fraud
That would indicate that Sony guessed correctly that they might not have downloaded CC information but just wanted to teach Sony a lesson and hurt them financially.
LOL i like the pic.
Like a serious geek thieft. Hilarious indeed.
It took so long to find out because most executives are no longer experienced engineers and need to hire outside firms to come in and tell them what’s going on. It’s almost laughable that just about every operations review in an organization needs to be done by outside firms that specialize in doing one. This means companies are very inefficient on a day to day basis. Some guy with an 80k MBA is appointed to a high level position because they either took on enough debt or had mommy and daddy pay for a piece of paper that took a couple extra years of school to get and teaches virtually nothing although I admit it gives a leg up in the workplace. I just don’t believe it should because this is the result. Idiots running organizations that can’t figure out what the heck is going on until they pay several million and waste a bunch of time!!
We are Idiots
We are Stupid
We do not Think
We do not Understand
Fuck us!
Nice lol, at least at end we fuck
lol someone disliked my comment……You all should have it where we can see who liked or dislikes comments….
I’m more interested in what they’re doing to find these creeps and if and when they do, who they are and what kind of jail time they are going to get.
Same. I’d say 50 years minimum. I just don’t understand why anybody would want to mess somebody’s life up by taking their CC info. In countries such as Somalia, they shoot first then ask questions later.
At the very least, he should be subject to a lawsuit for each and every single case of identity theft as opposed to one for the whole thing. If he doesn’t kill himself from bankruptcy after a few, he’ll be dealing with them for about 50 years.
@Jawknee1
i am too, but unfortunately i dont see anything like that happening.
i have absolutely no interest in hacking, what methods are used, or what methods can be used to even track the people that caused this. can they be traced? if so, why havent the people that hacked other companies been brought forward? has any hacker faced any real consequence for doing stuff like this?
as far as i know (which isnt much on the subject) no one has, which is unfortunate because stuff like this keeps happening. authorities really need to start cracking down on hackers, and the consequence for those caught should be very extreme so that these people would think twice before causing such a large financial loss for the companies, and the incredible inconveniance this could cause to any affected consumers.
so far the only inconvenience to ps3 users is the inability to access psn, but that doesnt change the fact that it (or still could be) far worse.
“i have absolutely no interest in hacking, what methods are used, or what methods can be used to even track the people that caused this. can they be traced? if so, why havent the people that hacked other companies been brought forward? has any hacker faced any real consequence for doing stuff like this?”
I know that there are ways of browsing the internet with somebody elses IP address(they volunteer, you can’t “hijack” as far as I know) so nobody can really tell where you are browsing from. I’m not sure if it’s confirmed to have been through a PS3 or a PC, if PS3 i’m not sure that it’s possible, but if PC there’s a possibility we can’t know for sure.
And in case it wasn’t obvious, i’m no expert on hacking by a long shot either so I don’t even know if it involves a browser. So if that’s the case, pretend I’m explaining to you how to look at porn at work or something so this wasn’t a total waste.
Well, the British police did arrest 5 members of Anonymous in the UK and 40 arrest warrants were issued here in the US for their attacks on Paypal and MasterCard so I remain hopeful and I hope Sony and the authorities remain vigilant.
hello …
there is no anonymity on the net & hackers know this, they mostly direct everything to fake infos, that’s why it’s difficult to get them. here they can after several hops make the investigators to end up at a real physical location with new material used for their bad deed & no personal info stored or they can use several ‘innocent zombie machines’ to perform attacks.
still, there are new developments on the Internet side that would give them a hard time, it will take less time to track them, meaning would limit their actions if not succeeding in catching them, still don’t expect any government or ISP to come up with official news soon, for if they come up with proof, they would kill their joker
some hackers are discovered but never publicized for either enrolled or discarded, we have to prevent the Streisand effects or tease the hacking community & not face their wrath.
SONY had a lesson, i’m not a fanboy but a mature gamer, i play on PC + PS3, best combo in my opinion for the other remaining platforms either bring too little more or not really appealing. I would defend SONY, MS, NINTENDO against piracy, but much more on the developer’s side. Businesses are here to make money by providing us with what we want that we can’t do ourselves (movies / tv series / music / artwork / cars / video games / etc…) … & we shall learn to respect this before we can live in a simili-utopia.
some hackers just do it for fun, while a lot are unfortunately real terrorists & they may even work for competitors, so we can’t just put all of them in the same basket. I would advise the setup of an anti-hacking team made up of ‘hackers’ who can infiltrate all other organisations & then attack silently from inside or feeding the authorities with precious infos or just make sure their friends doesn’t use their ‘loot’ to harm the ‘civilian’ … it’s a new warfare & such issues should be & will be addressed soon.
the attack against PSN & the DATA leak has several culprits, SONY for trusting too much their front side security & having unencrypted personal info, the users for giving too much ‘TRUE’ information , even if asked by the TOS (I always use my Initial or pseudo & never accept to give ID num, full address or CC & password never same as other sensitive sites) & those hackers who either want to scare people out of SONY’s life or harm US as consumers.
i hope we find a way to protect ourselves soon & the big corporates need to learn a lesson, if you have to keep personal DATA, don’t ask for too much & protect what you store while you should also do some underground research instead in declaring publicly your intentions. this is a silent war that can only be won if we all go against & the big mouth remain shut on some infos while opening up often to keep informing us on the risk before, during & after.
sorry for another long post, best of luck to SONY, i can’t cry for those leaving, like someone said would mean good filter & eventually we may end up with real great gamers & supporters … better have quality than quantity
cheers!
Honestly, If the government REALLY wanted to find hackers, they could. They have tech out that is 10-15 years into the future. What holds them back? The all mighty dollar. Its ashame. You really think they don’t know where Bin Laden is?
one more thing i wanted to add.
are people giving hackers way to much credit by saying that no matter how great your security is, if a hacker is persistent enough, it can be hacked?
the reason i ask is because while people (myself included) are looking at the bright side of things, being that this “new” psn will be more secure than ever, whats stopping these same people from continuing their attempts to continually hack the service? what then is the solution?
the root of the problem of course, are the ones behind this. but lets say they get caught, these people have proven to be like a roach infestation. you squash one, then others re appear. so as far as i see, theres no way to completely “exterminate” them.
i just wonder how sony will deal with these pests.
Totalitarianism is the only way to exterminate. But I would not want that option lol
i know right, but as extreme as that sounds, even that wont really make it completely go away.
i mean, these guys are like herpes, meaning no matter what you do to control outbreaks, the fact is that you can never really get rid of it, and they always keep coming back. no cure, no solution.
what probably gets to me the most is that they like to advocate freedom of speech and information. in this case acting as if sony is violating them by not wanting piracy on the console they designed. i dont believe sony is against homebrew or what you personally do with your own console, but its not possible to have one without the other, and thats exactly what sony is trying to fight against.
so how did these people come to the conclusion that their “freedoms” are of more value than the freedoms and rights of the companies and consumers that they have shown complete disregard towards? how did they come to the conclusion that its ok to attack companies simply because they dont agree with their policies? what about the freedom and private information of millions of people that could have been compromised? complete hipocrisy.
freedom and rights is a very delicate thing, and to be honest, i believe at times that maybe we have too many rights, as its very apparant by every single criminal that abuses them. maybe its the lack of fear, knowing that being caught comitting even the most horrendous crimes, you yourself will not be harmed. maybe governments should go back to publicly lynching those that simply cannot handle being a good, contributing, productive member of society.
Now is the time to stand together and support Sony anyway we can. We could help by purchasing more Sony products to help them out of the difficult situation and by spreading good word of mouth. After all no one wants the Playstation brand suddenly disappears from the face of this Earth would we?
I find it absolutely hilarious, that the photo they used…has a guy bent over a laptop, with a ski mask on. LMAO
Anyways, if you guys are following the story, you’d know that credit card companies are NOT reporting ANY unusual PSN activity. In fact, all Sony ever said….was that they THINK people’s PSN accounts and personal information was compromised.
Yea I nearly died laughing at the pic for this story.
Anyways, there is a single claim in Australia? I read that a guy has $2000 of fraudulent charges on his CC, though it seems to be unrelated, even if they say otherwise.
And then the chatter of “illegal blackmarket of the PSN data” which seems untrue as well, considering they state “phone numbers” as well as “CC security codes” are available, both of which can’t be stored in the PSN database tables.
come to think of it, when i first created my acct i don’t ever remember them (sony) asking for my phone number
LOL, yeah. Like this is what they think hackers look like, or something.
Might as well photoshop a picture of the Hamburgurlar running off with people’s credit cards, lmao.