Playstation Network User Information Compromised

[FlyingTrue]

Around a week ago the Sony Playstation Network, the online services for the Playstation console utilized by an estimated 70 million people, was brought down due to a hacker attack, and the service is currently still nonfunctional. Sony has now revealed that confidential user information has been stolen in the attack.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming....ack/index.html

[Sythan]

Wow, good thing I have Xbox Live.

[Cosmo]

Yeah I've been following and debating this like a pedophile. Without going into too much detail:

Sony waiting 6 days to tell us our credit cards and info has been stolen is unacceptable and borderline illegal.
Sony getting hacked this badly in the first place is unacceptable
Sony storing passwords in plaintext is unacceptable
Sony's absolute lack of communication is unacceptable

In short, I've decided I'm picking up a 360 in May to make use of my Live subscription I got billed for back in January. Will be using my PS3 for exclusives and nothing more.

[TigerTank77]

Took the words out of my Mouth monster. I actually am subscribed to PlayStation plus
and am VERY PISSED OFF.

[Aletheia*]

In what I read in the e-mail they sent out to everyone, they didn't know whether or not credit card information had been recieved. But, I do agree. Taking so much time to inform the people of their mishaps is unacceptable. AND, as a female who enjoys video games, I was looking forward to a quiet week, an empty house where I could play COD with no interuptions. Thanks, Sony Hacker. You have ruined my week.

[✖Ice✖]

I liked playstation until now guess i should change from ps3 to xbox..

[Guile]

^^ I'm not worried about bank info, I never paid for anything on there, I ust want to play some **cking MAG!!!

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by ShannonPants

In what I read in the e-mail they sent out to everyone, they didn't know whether or not credit card information had been recieved. But, I do agree. Taking so much time to inform the people of their mishaps is unacceptable. AND, as a female who enjoys video games, I was looking forward to a quiet week, an empty house where I could play COD with no interuptions. Thanks, Sony Hacker. You have ruined my week.

There's lots of news that doesn't come direct from Sony and they reiterate the same point that: that they have all the info you provided to Sony, except for the Security number on your credit card. Sony dun goof.

[BDF]

I just read it in online news lol.


I WANTED TO BE THE FIRST TO POST IT

[JustDanielle]

My brother has been so annoyed about this! :L

[Digilodger]

We can blame Sony for their lack of communication and maybe for the lack of security (maybe, because we really don't know how Sony's security layers set up).

But why are you guys place 100% blame at Sony and none at the cracker?



Sure, it's a huge company, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. TeenHelp's security is not perfect either. And hey, guess what? Your computer isn't perfect either, your network's and connection's security are not perfect either.



For example, since TeenHelp uses an older version of vBulletin, and TeenHelp also doesn't have the resources necessary to encrypt all connections, people within the same network with you can use package sniffers to sidejack your session.

So let's assume that you are a staff on here and a black-hat hacker successfully did that--intercepted your cookies and took control of your account. Then he decided to "have some fun" with that staff account's power and you know, abuse it. And then by the time you realized it, you were banned.


Whose fault would that be? TeenHelp's fault (for the lack of security)? Your fault (for being an idiot)? The hacker's fault (for sidejacking you)?

Everyone is at fault; in this case, it's probably 5% TeenHelp, 5% you, and 80% the hacker (and 10% bad luck ). Again, why the hell would you place 100% blame on the victim?

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by VoidZN

We can blame Sony for their lack of communication and maybe for the lack of security (maybe, because we really don't know how Sony's security layers set up).

But why are you guys place 100% blame at Sony and none at the cracker?



Sure, it's a huge company, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. TeenHelp's security is not perfect either. And hey, guess what? Your computer isn't perfect either, your network's and connection's security are not perfect either.



For example, since TeenHelp uses an older version of vBulletin, and TeenHelp also doesn't have the resources necessary to encrypt all connections, people within the same network with you can use package sniffers to sidejack your session.

So let's assume that you are a staff on here and a black-hat hacker successfully did that--intercepted your cookies and took control of your account. Then he decided to "have some fun" with that staff account's power and you know, abuse it. And then by the time you realized it, you were banned.


Whose fault would that be? TeenHelp's fault (for the lack of security)? Your fault (for being an idiot)? The hacker's fault (for sidejacking you)?

Everyone is at fault; in this case, it's probably 5% TeenHelp, 5% you, and 80% the hacker (and 10% bad luck ). Again, why the hell would you place 100% blame on the victim?

I will blame them for the plaintext. They should have encrypted it, end of story. Basically handing the info to the hackers on a plate. But yes, you're right, the hackers are to blame here. Still, I'm getting an xbox purely because it seems that Microsoft have their shit together whereas Sony has just failed. Waiting a week to tell us our info has been stolen... ridiculous.

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by VoidZN

We can blame Sony for their lack of communication and maybe for the lack of security (maybe, because we really don't know how Sony's security layers set up).

But why are you guys place 100% blame at Sony and none at the cracker?



Sure, it's a huge company, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. TeenHelp's security is not perfect either. And hey, guess what? Your computer isn't perfect either, your network's and connection's security are not perfect either.



For example, since TeenHelp uses an older version of vBulletin, and TeenHelp also doesn't have the resources necessary to encrypt all connections, people within the same network with you can use package sniffers to sidejack your session.

So let's assume that you are a staff on here and a black-hat hacker successfully did that--intercepted your cookies and took control of your account. Then he decided to "have some fun" with that staff account's power and you know, abuse it. And then by the time you realized it, you were banned.


Whose fault would that be? TeenHelp's fault (for the lack of security)? Your fault (for being an idiot)? The hacker's fault (for sidejacking you)?

Everyone is at fault; in this case, it's probably 5% TeenHelp, 5% you, and 80% the hacker (and 10% bad luck ). Again, why the hell would you place 100% blame on the victim?

All of the above are fair points; I would suggest that in Sony's case, however, the main cause of beef is having this kind of information stored in what was apparently a not-too-difficult-to-access format in a location on the live network as opposed to being stored in an external server which was not directly linked to the Playstation Network itself. It's not beyond their capabilities to set up distinct networks after all, and have the confidential information accessible only when actually required and only via Sony's internal systems. Credit card details are hardly needed that often on such networks once they are entered, for example. That is what surprises me about this. You are correct in that ultimately responsibility lies with the hacker(s), but at the same time Sony do seem to have demonstrated appalling foresight as to what might happen if someone decided to have a bit of fun with their system.

[Brandon]

Well isn't that just a blu-ray of sunshine.

[MegaMadness]

That would be annoying. Lucky for me I don;t have a play station