After nearly a week of downtime and sketchy details, Sony finally came clean on the reason behind the extended closure of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services: Not only were they hacked, but customer data was taken including personally identifiable information such as name, address, birthdate, email and PSN/Qriocity usernames and login passwords.
It's also possible though not confirmed that credit card numbers with expiration dates were stolen, which means it's vital if you supplied this to Sony that you watch your statements for any suspicious activity.
When the services come back (likely in some capacity within the next week), your first stop should be to change your password. And if you use the same password for everything (now do you see why that's such a bad idea?), start changing it now on sites that share those same login credentials. You can also review Sony's official statement, which suggests requesting free credit reports and placing a fraud alert on file with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to make it more difficult for anyone to obtain credit in your name.
Finally, here's the status on other PlayStation Network services:
- Games still work if they don't require PSN. You can also still get patches for games. A few games such as Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 and the Final Fight/Magic Sword pack have DRM that requires PSN access, so these will not play at all for now.
- Netflix streaming still works. Just keep trying even when prompted with PSN error messages. It should come up after 1-2 tries.
- The Infamous 2 beta will be extended. The new end date will be determined once access is restored.
If you're expecting compensation for the downtime and breach of data, Sony hasn't commented on this yet. It would be reasonable that customers with PlayStation Plus might receive a free month or two extension as a token of good faith and the temporary loss of cloud service saves. Likewise, it would be reasonable to expect that DC Universe Online, Hulu Plus and Qriocity trials/subscriptions will be extended. But time will tell. Stay tuned...
At least they're doing something. That lawsuit against Sony, for the record, likely won't hold up because we, and those silly lawyers, have no idea what steps were in place to prevent this. Nor do we know the full effect of it as this has just happened. If this custom firmware allowed them in as a trusted party, like a developer, then it's likely there was very little in the way that would normally be in the way of a normal user. This is, of course, because the only people who should have access to that space of PSN are devs who would be financially liable if they stole anything
yeah completely off topic but i just saw that headline used in a suicide study. Big campus network tv station/news alert screens had a headline that literally said "Misery Loves Company Suicide Study Shows"
on one level absolutely hilarious. On another surprisingly offensive.