On Tuesday, April 26 we shared that some information that was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. Once again, we’d like to apologize to the many users who were inconvenienced and worried about this situation.
We want to state this again given the increase in speculation about credit card information being used fraudulently. One report indicated that a group tried to sell millions of credit card numbers back to Sony. To my knowledge there is no truth to this report of a list, or that Sony was offered an opportunity to purchase the list.
One other point to clarify is from this weekend’s press conference. While the passwords that were stored were not “encrypted,” they were transformed using a cryptographic hash function. There is a difference between these two types of security measures which is why we said the passwords had not been encrypted. But I want to be very clear that the passwords were not stored in our database in cleartext form. For a description of the difference between encryption and hashing, follow this link.
To reiterate a few other security measures for your information: Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well. To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.
We continue to work with law enforcement and forensic experts to identify the criminals behind the attack. Once again, we apologize for causing users concern over this matter.
Our objective is to increase security so our customers can safely and confidently play games and use our network and media services. We will continue to provide updates as we have them.
huh?!
Good job keeping us updated.
and the comments die down (finally)
very nice password encryption method :D
but i still want my PSN back! lol
OK so when will PSN go live? Can Sony ever have a date for anything?
Though they said we’ll get a security firmware update and be required a mandatory password change in order to continue using the PSN services?
Thanks for keeping us updated.
There’s a lot of rumour, speculation and nonsense floating around on the interwebs, and some of it is even trickling in to mainstream news sites too. The problem is, as soon as it hits these sites it’s considered “fact” by the readers. Nothing generates clicks more than a bit of “credit card fraud” and “your information up-for-sale online” fear mongering.
I know it’s normally not good to comment on rumours, but right now, in the current environment, I think it’s good to see you guys following up on everything rather than just ignoring what people say.
Anyway, good luck with getting everything back to normal. I never realised how much I’d miss the online functionality of the PS3 until it was suspended. Hopefully it’ll be back soon
@DZORMAGEN
Uncharted 3 has a good date
1-Nov-2011
Patiently waiting :)
Informative post
Those rumors are spreading like wildfire on popular sites, good thing this blogs keeps things in check
I can’t join the Socom.com forums. Please fix it.
It’s always sad when you have to issue an extra statement just to cover the bad reporting. Looking forward to seeing how Kotaku screws up reporting this one… :/
@RedHarlow
I’m assuming that the Socom.com forums will start working again when PSN is turned back on. The Socom.com forums, as well as the PlayStation forums and this blog use PSN for login. If you were not already signed in before PSN was suspended, I guess that you won’t be able to log in now.
Once PSN is back, everything should be ok
Can’t wait GT5 i’m waiting to play
Please just gives us a solid date!
Thanks for the updates
Are we going to be able to change other aspects of our profiles that we were previously not allowed to after the initial sign up process?
As in, our security questions and answers. Considering this information was also leaked it does not seem feasible to just change my password; as the person/persons in questions have all information needed to just steal the account back or take it all together.
I’ve already had to go through an extensive process of protecting myself because of this leak. And I have already had unauthorized charges show up on my cards, but at this time can’t be proven to be related to this incident.
So, Mr. Seybold, please answer this simple question for me.
Those security questions will not be used. As an added layer of security, the password can only be reset on the hardware in which it was created, or through a validated email confirmation. If necessary, Customer Service representatives have alternative methods of validating accounts, but the primary means will be through the console on which the account was created.