We get all sorts of e-mail daily. My heavens, we are one of the biggest newspapers in the country and have to fight through the vast amount of spam, pitches, Facebook invites and the like. So when I received a forwarded e-mail from a staffer about the PlayStation outage, I read over it, peeped out the site to make sure it wasn't just spam and Tweeted about it. That was it.
That was Monday.
Tuesday, Sony confirmed the very thing the concerned reader had told us.
Wow.
Here's the e-mail (personal info has been omitted)
Hello, My name is XXX and I called in a few minutes ago, about the Sony Playstation network down for over 3 days due to network intrusion.
You can reach me at (Houston phone number) and read about it on my sons Blog. We found out some information regarding credit card info and email compromises.
Sony Playstation attack could be much more than they are telling. (Link: http://www.confusedthoughts.com/2011/04/sony-playstation-attack-telling/ )
Should we be concerned?
I would say absolutely, Sony has not announced that any user's personal information was compromised, but they did not say it wasn't either. As reading my dialog with the representative, you can see there is not much they are offering. So please make sure you information is secure, check bank statements regularly and emails. This is not only game play that has been affect,but could be your credit and much much more.
Lee
Owner http://www.confusedthoughts.com
And here's the transcript from his Web site:
Why is the network down?
Sony decided to take US, Canada and Europe network down as a security measure. A security measure of this magnitude can mean the intrusion or (hack) compromised systems that could potentially contain customer information. Yes Customer information; So I called Sony today and this is the information I got: (I left the representatives name as rep)
Rep: “Hello, Thank you for calling Sony Playstation. How may I help you?”
Me: “Hi, my name is…. I know the Playstation network is offline and I know why”?
Rep: “Thank you for your patience, We are doing every thing we can to get service restored.”
Me: “I read that there was a network intrusion posted by Patrick Seybold // Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media, Have any user information been compromised? Such as email address or credit card information?”
Rep: “At this time we do not have any further information, but I would check credit card information with any accounts associated with the Playstation network, and look for suspicious emails”.
Me: “When do you think a press release will be scheduled for an update of the compromise?”
Rep: “At this time there is none scheduled?”
Me: “I am going to post this on my website, if that is fine.”
Rep: “Please hold”
Me: “Holding…………………..(about 2 min)”
Rep: “Thank you for holding, I cannot confirm or deny that any user information was compromised, such as credit card or emails. I can say that I would check bank statements and emails to be 100% sure, Thats just me saying. You can post this information on your blog if you would like also.
Me: “ Thank you, I am posting this information today…”
Rep “Thank you, we appreciate all the media and posts regarding this matter., what is your site?
Me: “www. Confusedthoughts.com”
Rep: “ I will have to suscribe on my spare time, is there anything else I can do for you?”
Me: “No thank you and try to get us online as soon as possible, I just bought Homefront, and assasins creed, this could not of happen at a worse time”
Rep: “Yes, and thank you. You might receive a email survey regarding your customer service experience today.”
As stated earlier, we knew this on Monday. I get tips all day long, but needed to be cautious before posting something that could be dead wrong.
Until Sony confirmed just that.
Here's some of Sony's official response:
Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.
Source: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-...
So, as confusedthoughts.com suggests, check your bank statements and even change your password. A Reuters story is claiming 77M PSN accounts have been compromised.
What are your thoughts on the PSN breach? Are you concerned? Thoughts? Have your say but keep it civil.
Stay tuned for more video game news.
- Ski11z
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