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Sony confirms, PSN is down because of hackers

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DVDBack23 @ Apr 23, 2011 16:24 | 70 comments

Earlier this week we reported that Sony's PlayStation Network was down "for maintenance" and that Sony was saying the downtime might be a "day or two" as Sony worked to bring back all features.

The shutdown is taking a lot longer than a day or two, as the PSN is still not functional, but at least Sony has confirmed why the popular free service is non-functional.

Says the company, via its blog:

An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.

The PSN has over 70 million registered users, with 40 million or so expected to be active accounts.

So far, no one has taken credit for the attack, and 'Anonymous' said on Thursday, bluntly, "it wasn't us."

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Comment by: KillerBug (Apr 25, 2011 10:27)

Ghah...sunlight...it BURNS!!!

I would switch to a 360...if it were not for my massive collection of games that would be useless on the 360. As for the Wii, the same problem applies, plus I couldn't even repurchase most of my games because the thing does not have to power to run them. I won't be buying the next sony console, but I am kinda stuck with the PS3...the system itself is only a tiny fraction of the money I have spent on the games. On top of that my "real life" friends are all on the PSN...a couple of them have 360s, but even they don't pay for XBL gold, because our whole circle is on the PSN. I will make sure they all remember this when it comes time for us all to move to the next generation...I don't want to be forced to buy a PS4 simply because it is the only way to play against friends.

Comment by: DXR88 (Apr 25, 2011 10:43)

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Ghah...sunlight...it BURNS!!!

I would switch to a 360...if it were not for my massive collection of games that would be useless on the 360. As for the Wii, the same problem applies, plus I couldn't even repurchase most of my games because the thing does not have to power to run them. I won't be buying the next sony console, but I am kinda stuck with the PS3...the system itself is only a tiny fraction of the money I have spent on the games. On top of that my "real life" friends are all on the PSN...a couple of them have 360s, but even they don't pay for XBL gold, because our whole circle is on the PSN. I will make sure they all remember this when it comes time for us all to move to the next generation...I don't want to be forced to buy a PS4 simply because it is the only way to play against friends.

The PC still Remains the most powerful gaming machine. Maybe its time to give up the training wheels?

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 25, 2011 11:57)

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Ghah...sunlight...it BURNS!!!

I would switch to a 360...if it were not for my massive collection of games that would be useless on the 360...

Wait... the PS3 has a massive collection of games?

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Anonymous User (Apr 25, 2011 15:59)

Originally posted by hikaricor:
Maybe if you didn't treat your customers like shit this kinda thing wouldn't happen sony.

i dont think u know wat ur talkin bout... if sony didnt care bout us y would they make psn free 2 all gamers who play ps and y would they shut down completlyif they didnt wanna protect us from the hackers... i think u just got ur panties in a bunch

Comment by: hikaricor (Apr 25, 2011 23:13)

And I think you're a brainless sheep who doesn't understand marketing. ;)

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 25, 2011 23:44)

Or grammar...

Friggen' 1337 speak.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Oner (Apr 26, 2011 00:39)

Now there is info/rumor that this was due to the Rebug 3.55.1 CFW. Which kind of makes the most sense out of all this because it allowed the (free) "purchase" of ANY game/dlc on the PSN via the dev network.

Search > http://forums.afterdawn.com/search
Rules > http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487
Important Rule > http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/380660

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 26, 2011 01:23)

Originally posted by Oner:
Now there is info/rumor that this was due to the Rebug 3.55.1 CFW. Which kind of makes the most sense out of all this because it allowed the (free) "purchase" of ANY game/dlc on the PSN via the dev network.

So you are saying that Sony shut it down themselves to prevent the theft of game/dlc on the PSN whist they sorted out a solution?

Gee, I would have though the loss of revenue over the Easter period would have made them wait till after. There can't be that many who have that CFW. (And couldn't they trace the IP's of those that did anyway? I would have thought that would be a really bloody risky thing to do... just asking to be caught imho.)

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Mrguss (Apr 26, 2011 06:17)

Sony Shuts Down PlayStation Network Indefinitely:

4-25-11 http://goo.gl/fb/e1pjn
4-26-11 http://bit.ly/e2wMUN

+4000

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 26, 2011 08:20)

@MrGuss

Wall Street Journal! Well I suppose that about says it all.

Had a quick browse through the comments. I was surprised at how many said they were going to switch over to Xbox. Didn't really believe it but there were a lot.

Lot of people blaming Anonymous too.

(One wrote: "Fix the lag while your at it". Kind of ironic, the paid-for X360 version is crap in Oz too... for international connections.)

I can see M$ moving to make sure they are safe. One would hope so, I hate the way they keep one's CC details. I suppose it makes it easier for kids to steal off their parents.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Mrguss (Apr 26, 2011 08:32)

Originally posted by Jemborg:
@MrGuss

Wall Street Journal! Well I suppose that about says it all.

Had a quick browse through the comments. I was surprised at how many said they were going to switch over to Xbox. Didn't really believe it but there were a lot.

Lot of people blaming Anonymous too.

(One wrote: "Fix the lag while your at it". Kind of ironic, the paid-for X360 version is crap in Oz too... for international connections.)

I can see M$ moving to make sure they are safe. One would hope so, I hate the way they keep one's CC details. I suppose it makes it easier for kids to steal off their parents.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

According to PC World, "External Intrusion" means that it wasn't a DDOS attack, but instead, it's likely the handy work of one individual.

http://goo.gl/fb/kiajg
http://bit.ly/fTZHyt

My best bet is Comodo Affair Style:
http://www.scmagazineus.com/i-am-comodo-hacker-iranian-claims/article/199407/#
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/03/26/iran_blamed_for_net_security_attack

+4000

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 26, 2011 08:44)

@Mr Guss

That Extended Subset blog was eyebrow raising stuff!

EDIT: Gus (Gustav) is my little boy's name. Heh.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: oneguy (Apr 26, 2011 13:34)

okay, now my netflix isnt working... it was working before when the psn first became down but now it wont play any movies and now I'm getting annoyed because I kept telling people "it's a free service, so you cant really complain" but now it's effecting my netflixing which isn't a free service, so wtf!!! I can open up netflix but when I click on begin movie then it tells me shit about having to sign in again.... to put it lightly, that's not cool!

Comment by: oneguy (Apr 26, 2011 13:52)

Originally posted by scorpio1377:
Maybe a few of you should go outside and see some sun light.

Hey cock, my ps3 isn't just mine it's in the living room and available to my whole family. If it was in my bedroom and no one else had access to it then maybe I'd consider going out for a jog but since I've been running regularly three days a week for the past few years and my ps3 is also used not just for games but also for the rest of the family's entertainment.... I say suck my nut to you because now for the reasons I decided to get a ps3 in the first place (family netflixing being cheaper than going to the movies) I say your talking out your ass and you dont know what your talking about and I bet if you posted a picture of your ugly self you'd look like less physically active than me, shithead... :) so yeah, sony blah blah blah, I'm not a happy customer.

Comment by: mystic (Apr 26, 2011 15:00)

ok like I think I broke the internet... my jack-o-rabbit got lose and I used the net to catch it now it wont work... .....lol ok everyone look its like someone( broke the ps3 code got sued and then said they would never ever do it again ( break the code) but they didnt say that others wouldnt hack the main site.. look your kewl we all bow to you you are the gods and mean the best with your wicked ways but stop now your starting to piss off the masses and we want our downtime to play games or what ever.. ( I like to come home and kill a few bad guys before dinner) we get the point your pissed off at sony .. but the rest of us didnt do anything ... (ok maybe someone of us snipped you while you waited to long behind that crate... ) and well send that person to his room with out his /hers ps3 butthe rest of us want to kill some time before we hurt someone .... so do us a favor knock it off.... thanks

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 26, 2011 17:04)

Originally posted by mystic:
ok like I think I broke the internet... my jack-o-rabbit got lose and I used the net to catch it now it wont work... .....lol ok everyone look its like someone( broke the ps3 code got sued and then said they would never ever do it again ( break the code) but they didnt say that others wouldnt hack the main site.. look your kewl we all bow to you you are the gods and mean the best with your wicked ways but stop now your starting to piss off the masses and we want our downtime to play games or what ever.. ( I like to come home and kill a few bad guys before dinner) we get the point your pissed off at sony .. but the rest of us didnt do anything ... (ok maybe someone of us snipped you while you waited to long behind that crate... ) and well send that person to his room with out his /hers ps3 butthe rest of us want to kill some time before we hurt someone .... so do us a favor knock it off.... thanks

You think it's just a prank. Maybe not. From MrGuss' link above http://goo.gl/fb/kiajg :

Wikipedia reports 50 million PlayStation 3 units and 70 million PlayStation Network users... This attacker could potentially have created overnight the largest botnet in the world by a very large margin...

...if this attacker played their cards right they could control up to 500,000,000 CPU (?) cores for a total of 1,600,000,000,000,000,000 core-cycles per second.... even 10% of this type of computing capacity is far beyond what many important data security and cryptographic systems are expected to resist. For example, it seems likely that the Stevens et al. techniques could be used again successfully to forge a stronger SHA-1-based rogue Certificate Authority (or several).

Then there are the accounts.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Mrguss (Apr 26, 2011 21:21)

LATEST NEWS 4-26-11 (2PM MT...US)

SONY, PS Blog: We don’t have an exact date to share at this moment as to when we will have the services turned on, ......regarding a compromise of personal information.....

http://bit.ly/e2wMUN

+4000

Comment by: Anonymous User (Apr 27, 2011 05:20)

Just get XBL dummies

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 27, 2011 09:02)

Originally posted by Jemborg:
...Then there are the accounts.

Well well, so what do you know? All the news reports including the Aust Federal Fraud squad say it's CC and identity theft on a massive scale. Millions of accounts.

I did make a comment on how I disliked CC details being held by $ony (and M$ etc.) simply because it made it easy for kids to steal from Mum and Dad. This is the upshot...

I came close to recommending everybody should change their CC details ~ which the cops are now doing. Too bloody late to worry about all your personal details e.g. birthday, home address etc.

I really do blame Sony here... dickheads!

PS: I still think it may have originated from Russia. But I only thought it may have been blackmail because we were led to believe it was purely a LOIC DOS attack (which was probably the cover).

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.

Comment by: Anonymous User (Apr 27, 2011 16:39)

[b]get it back up NOW!!!!! [/b]

Comment by: Gdot73 (Apr 29, 2011 13:04)

fcuk sony. us customers rule. they make the machine, we buy it & do to it whatever we choose. sony is below us, not above. they make whatever they make to please us. they dont rule us & im glad people fight for our playstation community. the community is dominant, DO NOT TRY & FIGHT US. i a wont be buying a ngp or psp2 like i did the 3DS, sony isnt getting my money again. lets all rape our current sony products & get every last drop out of them & not give them money for any of their future products. even you dumb casuals. nintendo made some dumb claims too, but definately not to the extent of sony. take this on board & boycott their future products, make then learn the hard way that were dominant

Comment by: hk2 (Apr 29, 2011 21:10)

always question what Sony says if its true or not, they have continuously lied to the public, why do you think they would now be telling the truth, about anything?

White SW PSP 2001> Silver PSP 2001 > Silver PSP 3000 >Installed CFW > CFW 5.00 M33 >(:>) Im not as think as you dumb I am.

Comment by: LordRuss (Apr 29, 2011 21:15)

Here, here

If something I said bothers you, then maybe you needed bother'n...

Comment by: 4LMIR (May 01, 2011 18:42)

Originally posted by ROMaster2:

Originally posted by ANGRYSUBURBAN:
Wall of text
Bold and bad grammar doesn't make it any easier to read bro.

hahaha

Comment by: seegee (May 02, 2011 04:17)

Although I feel bad for all sony customers, this is your golden opportunity to wean yourself of a product from a company that ripped you off and will continue to do so when they are up and running again. If sony only keeps 50% of their customers after this event, sony will be more arrogant than ever, knowing they can do anything to their customers and they will follow like sheep.

Summer is coming. Go outside, play a sport that involves more than moving your fingers. Worst case scenario: Your're addicted to gaming: then switch to PC gaming. The games work on any PC. (Maybe you should boycot Ubisoft for their DRM games though.)

Otherwise, grin and bear it folks. If sony customers are that deeply addicted to psn, then I will probably buy shares in sony and collect healthy dividends for YOUR money!

I will still never buy any Sony products.