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| Credit: Bits - NYTimes |
If you're a PS3 owner, and a member of the PlayStation Network, you probably noticed that the online service was down for a long time between April 17th and 19th of 2011. Coincidentally, this outage coincided with the Amazon web server problems. However, the reason for the PlayStation outage was sort of different.
Patrick Seybold on Sony's PlayStation Blog talks about an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into their network. They say that they have temporarily stopped PSN and Qriocity services, hired a "recognized security firm" and have started working on strengthening their security (thumbs up for the last one).
Sony says that user data might have been compromised in this attack. They have no evidence about what, if anything, has been stolen. But there is a possibility of the following data being compromised in the attack:
- Name
- Address (city, state, zip)
- Country
- Email address
- Birth date
- PSN/Qriocity password and login handle
- PSN online ID
"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."He suggests that you closely monitor your credit card usage and reports. He also recommends that you change your password as soon as you regain access to the Network.
[PlayStation Blog via Kotaku]
