Sony got hacked again

Earlier today Sony Online Entertainment shut down service because of an intrusion into the system, and now we’ve learned thousands of users’ credit card numbers were stolen. The news was originally reported by Japanese news site Nikkei.com (via BGR), but SOE has since released a press release detailing even deeper attacks.

The report states that more than 12,700 customers’ credit card numbers may have been stolen. SOE believes hackers stole customer information on April 16 and April 17. Engineers and security consultants reviewing SOE systems discovered that personal information from approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts may have been stolen, as well as certain information from an outdated database from 2007. The outdated database had approximately 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates, but no security cards. There may also have been 10,700 direct debit records stolen from customers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.

Given the attacks on the PlayStation Network, SOE had already undertaken an intensive investigation into its system. Upon discovering the additional information, SOE shut down all servers related to SOE services while it reviewed and upgraded all of its online security.

The press release went on to say, “Sony is making this disclosure as quickly as possible after the discovery of the theft, and the company has posted information on its website and will send e-mails to all consumers whose data may have been stolen.”

Personal information stolen from approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts includes names, addresses, email addresses, birthdates, gender, phone numbers, login names, and hashed passwords. The 10,700 direct debit records stolen include bank account numbers, customer names, account names, and customers’ addresses.

Customers will receive 30 days of additional time on their subscriptions, in addition to compensation of one day for each day the system is down. SOE is also working on a “make good” plan for customers of its PS3 MMOs DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Sony will also offer complimentary assistance in enrolling users in identity theft protection services.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, DC Universe Online and yet other smaller games in development.

30 days of extra service isn't going to solve theft, tsk

storing personal information in plain text is generally frowned upon

Its not to fix the theft, its to shut people up about a FREE network being down. Its quite nice of them to give standard members a free month of plus for this considering standard being 100% free.

Furthermore, stating that you can't redownload a purchase is just plain wrong. All you have to do is go to your downloads in the store, its ALL in there, and you can download it all again. Shit, you can redownload it on up to 5 different systems. But yeah, you're totally right, once you delete it that shits gone

Then bringing up PSHome, thats free. Yeah, you buy other stuff in it but by that logic a trip to Wal-Mart isnt free because you have to pay for the things you want to take out of the store. Your logic on all of this is just so terrible its unreal.

And I dont get what you are trying to say by mentioning that PSN is a feature of the system and thus why people buy the system. What point does that prove? You dont even need a Sony system to make a god damn account, so whats your fucking point? I'm getting sick of arguing with you morons who think that just because you have to buy the stuff that is used with it, that means you pay for PSN. I had a PSN account about a year before I had a PS3, my PS3 has THREE PSN accounts on it, and I didnt pay a dime for them. Its a 100% free service to you, THE DEVELOPERS pay for you to use it, but the cost of games arent marked up to make up for it at all. Again, just because you have things you can buy on it does not mean the service isnt free, reference the trip to Wal-Mart example.

How people cant wrap their brains around this is something I will never be able to understand. PSN is free. For the most part, the stuff on it isnt (there isnt an abundance of free DLC but its out there). Online play is free unless the company making the game wants you to pay them (in which case your PSN account is still free, but you have to pay to enable it with, say, Mortal Kombat). Having to pay WB to play MK online doesn't mean PSN isnt free and Sony doesnt see a dime from that online pass.

PSN is free. Otherwise PS3 games would cost more than Xbox 360 games if you put it that way cos you have to pay a separate fee for Xbox LIVE. The games are usually equal in price on release with nothing else different but the platform.