The Great 2011 PSN Outage Megathread *Post 1 updated*

GothPunk

Varik wrote: »

I assume i'll need a 3rd email and to shuffle them around but is there a limit or restriction to this, like using an already used but not assigned email on an other PSN account.

You're right, you can only use one email address per PSN account, but Gmail is special. Do you know the 'full stop' trick? If you put a full stop anywhere in your email address most software reads it as a unique email address, but all mail will get sent to the one gmail account.

So varikrocks@gmail.com, varik.rocks@gmail.com and va.rikrocks@gmail.com etc can all be linked to different PSN accounts, but all mail will be accessible from varikrocks@gmail.com.

Hope that helps your situation.

keithc83

Chris P. Bacon wrote: »

I just got the email now.

Yeah finally got my email tonight too. Wasn't expecting to get an email from them this early.... :rolleyes:

Varik

GothPunk wrote: »

You're right, you can only use one email address per PSN account, but Gmail is special. Do you know the 'full stop' trick? If you put a full stop anywhere in your email address most software reads it as a unique email address, but all mail will get sent to the one gmail account.

So varikrocks@gmail.com, varik.rocks@gmail.com and va.rikrocks@gmail.com etc can all be linked to different PSN accounts, but all mail will be accessible from varikrocks@gmail.com.

Hope that helps your situation.

Can Google get any better.

For their next amazing feat i want Google voice.

Desire.

sink wrote: »

My only worry is can LastPass be hacked?

I would imagine so; anything can be hacked these days.

johnny_ultimate

And now the FBI are involved: http://kotaku.com/#!5796832/fbi-cybercrimes-joins-22-states-in-sweeping-sony-playstation-network-investigation

I'll be pissed if they find out this man was responsible:

Renn

I'm still pretty pissed with the way Sony have reacted here.

Will I Amnt

Are all the emails the same??I registered an O2 email with them but I've switched to Vodafone since then and can't login to the O2 website to check.

Desire.

cambo2008 wrote: »

Are all the emails the same??I registered an O2 email with them but I've switched to Vodafone since then and can't login to the O2 website to check.

Yeah, different emails for EU and US though.

Kersmash

Q&A number 2!

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/28/qa-2-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/28/qa-2-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/ wrote:

Q: Will our download history/friends list/settings be affected by the PSN downtime?
A: No, they will not.

Q: Will trophies that were earned in single-player offline games during the outage be intact when the service resumes?
A: These trophies are intact and will be re-synched when the network is once again operational.

Q: Will my PS+ cloud saves be retrievable?
A: Yes, once PSN is restored.

Q: What if we have a subscription to PS3 MMOs DC Universe Online or Free Realms? Will we get compensation for that?
A: From Sony Online Entertainment: “We apologize for any inconvenience players may have experienced as a result of the recent service interruption. As a global leader in online gaming, SOE is committed to delivering stable and entertaining games for players of all ages. To thank players for their patience, we will be hosting special events across our game portfolio. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums.”

Q: Will there be a goodwill gesture for the time we haven’t been able to utilize PSN/Qriocity?
A: We are currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online.

J-blk

sink wrote: »

I think I'm going to set up a LastPass account and use unique auto generated random passwords for each separate site/service from now on. This has happened several times to me now on a few different sites/services including boards.ie.

My only worry is can LastPass be hacked?

You might also want to check out 1Password:

http://agilewebsolutions.com/onepassword

I've used it for years and it's great - started as a Mac OS X/iOS app but there are Windows and Android versions now too. Unlike LastPass, the DB is stored and encrypted on your machine, not in the cloud (unless of course if you are using the Dropbox sync option but that's a different matter...).

Have to agree with Desire. though, anything can be hacked, including both 1Password and LastPass...

The other downside to 1Password is that obviously it's not free, but way better than LastPass IMO.

cherryghost

So a supposed 2.2 million credit cards was actually leaked out because of this. Whoop-di-****ing-do.

Korvanica

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/territories/ie/

Dunno if its been posted.. looks like we'll all get some free stuff for our patience anyway....

thefinalstage

I have had Sony consoles ever since the ps1. I have stuck by them even through all these years. I got both the ps2 and ps3 on launch day. This has now darkened my opinion of them and I just don't feel safe using the psn network anymore.

Goodbye Sony, hello Microsoft.

Chavways

If I had used a credit card to buy something on the PS Store and I deleted the details in the account management section after the purchase is there any way the hackers could have gotten the info?

WolfForager

Rumours of a revamped PS Store when it comes back up online.

padair

cherryghost wrote: »

So a supposed 2.2 million credit cards was actually leaked out because of this. Whoop-di-****ing-do.

They may have the credit card numbers but they cannot use them as they do not have the three digit security code.

I don’t know why people are moaning so much. The people whom did this were pretty dammed clever. OK they may have some of our details {name,address,dob} but any clown with a face book account or access to the internet can access these details. If someone goes through you bin outside your house they will probably get more information than this.

So two fingers up to all of the moaners. Its time to take your life in perspective. As today is Friday smile and say hello to a random stranger. It will completely make up for the fact that PSN is down

cdb

Could it have been an inside job? Interview with Sony senior director on Arstechnica:

"The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack," Seybold wrote. He also pointed out that the information was behind both physical and electronic safeguards, which means the attack may have been carried out by an employee.

full article here: Link

GothPunk

I'm not so sure padair. Some people are very protective of their personal information and are perhaps paranoid about such information being out there, but the fact is that such information has value (to yourself personally, for marketing, to spammers and hackers etc.)

Sure you could find out some stuff about me by going through my rubbish, but that is my responsibility to rip up or shred any confidential documents that go in my bin. This situation with Sony is almost like your local bank throwing out confidential documents in their bin without shredding them first - you have entrusted your info to a third party and they didn't have adequate security protecting that information.

I do agree though that I don't see why people feel a need to punish Sony over this - we all take risks entering our personal information on websites knowing that it could get into the wrong hands. When hackers do break into a system I expect the owners of said system to spend a lot of time and money making sure it doesn't happen again, or at the very least make it pretty damn hard for it to happen again. It seems Sony are doing this and are taking this issue very seriously.

Perhaps they haven't been very forthcoming with information - but it's possible the hackers involved were very skilled and didn't leave any tracks. That would make it more difficult to detect which information had been accessed surely? They've had an update every day which is what we should expect I guess, but still we've ended up with a lot of FUD.

As for people complaining about having to wait a while for an email - any software is going to take a few days to send out 77,000,000 emails. You can't just press 'go' and have them all sent out at once, it doesn't work like that.

At the end of the day, you use PSN to play and buy games. You are not obligated to use real information on your PSN account, and neither is a credit card your only option to purchase games from the PSN. People say they're never buying Sony again but what are you going to do when The Last Guardian comes out, hmm? I'm betting that PS3 will look pretty tempting again. The PSN also has a pretty healthy group of indie developers publishing games on it (including the Irish developer Open Emotion Studios), I don't believe they should be punished over this either.

IngazZagni

poisonedstream wrote: »

I have had Sony consoles ever since the ps1. I have stuck by them even through all these years. I got both the ps2 and ps3 on launch day. This has now darkened my opinion of them and I just don't feel safe using the psn network anymore.

Goodbye Sony, hello Microsoft.

But would you not agree that with this huge issue behind them, when it's back online the PSN will be far more secure than ever before and perhaps even more so that any other online networks? Sony just can't afford that not to be the case.

The PS3 has had some great exclusives release already this year and a good few more to come later on, I just feel that when these games come out many people will swallow their words and put this behind them. If they don't, well their loss I guess.

padair

GothPunk wrote: »

I'm not so sure padair. Some people are very protective of their personal information and are perhaps paranoid about such information being out there, but the fact is that such information has value (to yourself personally, for marketing, to spammers and hackers etc.)

Sure you could find out some stuff about me by going through my rubbish, but that is my responsibility to rip up or shred any confidential documents that go in my bin. This situation with Sony is almost like your local bank throwing out confidential documents in their bin without shredding them first - you have entrusted your info to a third party and they didn't have adequate security protecting that information.

I do agree though that I don't see why people feel a need to punish Sony over this - we all take risks entering our personal information on websites knowing that it could get into the wrong hands. When hackers do break into a system I expect the owners of said system to spend a lot of time and money making sure it doesn't happen again, or at the very least make it pretty damn hard for it to happen again. It seems Sony are doing this and are taking this issue very seriously.

Perhaps they haven't been very forthcoming with information - but it's possible the hackers involved were very skilled and didn't leave any tracks. That would make it more difficult to detect which information had been accessed surely? They've had an update every day which is what we should expect I guess, but still we've ended up with a lot of FUD.

As for people complaining about having to wait a while for an email - any software is going to take a few days to send out 77,000,000 emails. You can't just press 'go' and have them all sent out at once, it doesn't work like that.

At the end of the day, you use PSN to play and buy games. You are not obligated to use real information on your PSN account, and neither is a credit card your only option to purchase games from the PSN. People say they're never buying Sony again but what are you going to do when The Last Guardian comes out, hmm? I'm betting that PS3 will look pretty tempting again. The PSN also has a pretty healthy group of indie developers publishing games on it (including the Irish developer Open Emotion Studios), I don't believe they should be punished over this either.

People can get the census information pretty handy aswell, but I do agree with your point.

AIR-AUSSIE

padair wrote: »

They may have the credit card numbers but they cannot use them as they do not have the three digit security code.

I don’t know why people are moaning so much. The people whom did this were pretty dammed clever. OK they may have some of our details {name,address,dob} but any clown with a face book account or access to the internet can access these details. If someone goes through you bin outside your house they will probably get more information than this.

So two fingers up to all of the moaners. Its time to take your life in perspective. As today is Friday smile and say hello to a random stranger. It will completely make up for the fact that PSN is down

Yea I have my credit card details on my Fb page for all my friends to see. :rolleyes:

Anything I have put on Fb - I have chosen to do so. I used my credit card on PSN with the understanding it was secure like any other online store not that they stored my details in a text file.

I am not moaning, I'm freaking angry that I've been put out really.

And I miss battlefield.

Dr Bob

padair wrote: »

Its time to take your life in perspective.

God I hate "lol guize why not go 0utside watch tv lol" type posts,whenever PSN/XBL/Battlenet or whatever is down.
People pay for a service (buying the console and games is payment) they expect a level of competence from the provider.if said provider cant/wont provide this people are fully within their rights to complain.
Not to get at you , but when people don't complain, companies see it as a green light to provide the cheapest , shoddiest service they can...

AIR-AUSSIE

padair wrote: »

People can get the census information pretty handy aswell, but I do agree with your point.

The names and addresses of individuals are encrypted though (well that's what they say...)

IngazZagni

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Yea I have my credit card details on my Fb page for all my friends to see. :rolleyes:

Anything I have put on Fb - I have chosen to do so. I used my credit card on PSN with the understanding it was secure like any other online store not that they stored my details in a text file.

I am not moaning, I'm freaking angry.

I haven't being following this 100% but didn't they say that cc details were encrypted? Also key info was not available like security code meaning they couldn't use it anyway. Also it's not confirmed any cc details were taken and finally no credit card company has reported any illegal activity as a result of this.

AIR-AUSSIE

cherryghost wrote: »

So a supposed 2.2 million credit cards was actually leaked out because of this. Whoop-di-****ing-do.

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

Almost looks like they're subtly admitting to sending credit card data unencrypted, and only encrypting in the data tables?

See quotes above^
There's a couple of links to sites that claim that they stored unencrypted.

I'm not worried that my CC has been compromised its more how lax their security is.

padair

IngazZagni wrote: »

I haven't being following this 100% but didn't they say that cc details were encrypted? Also key info was not available like security code meaning they couldn't use it anyway. Also it's not confirmed any cc details were taken and finally no credit card company has reported any illegal activity as a result of this.

It does not matter a dammed if something is encrypted. This information was taken from its location. Once the culprate has the file it is just a matter of time until they crack it. The encryption does not stop some one from talking it, it just stops people from reading it.

There is nothing out there that is uncrackable with the exception of some peoples humor.

Just to point out that I have had to cancel me credit cards and change my password. It was an inconvience but thats life. It would be worse if some one broke into a bank and stole all of the deeds to every house in the bank. That would be worse in my opinion

IngazZagni

padair wrote: »

It does not matter a dammed if something is encrypted. This information was taken from its location. Once the culprate has the file it is just a matter of time until they crack it. The encryption does not stop some one from talking it, it just stops people from reading it.

There is nothing out there that is uncrackable with the exception of some peoples humor.

Just to point out that I have had to cancel me credit cards and change my password. It was an inconvience but thats life. It would be worse if some one broke into a bank and stole all of the deeds to every house in the bank. That would be worse in my opinion

I think you were wasting your time cancelling your cc's. More hassle than it's worth. Besides in the highly unlikely circumstance that anything did happen, the bank would be responsible for paying me back.
As for passwords, you should have had different passwords for different things anyway. My PSN password is unique as is every other thing I have a password for. I have my own system for remembering all these passwords.

What about that wikileaks data that like a million people have but it's encrypted. I haven't heard of anyone breaking that yet.

nedd

Just found this:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/25/rumor-rebug-custom-firmware-enabled-free-psn-downloads-for/

not sure if it has been posted already. Could this all be a cover-up to block some CFW? Did Aliens crack the PSN? Can we blame the Devil for all of this?

thefinalstage

IngazZagni wrote: »

But would you not agree that with this huge issue behind them, when it's back online the PSN will be far more secure than ever before and perhaps even more so that any other online networks? Sony just can't afford that not to be the case.

The PS3 has had some great exclusives release already this year and a good few more to come later on, I just feel that when these games come out many people will swallow their words and put this behind them. If they don't, well their loss I guess.

I would agree that it will most likely be more secure but forever more I will have this niggling feeling of the network being insecure.

Grayditch

It hasn't made me think "Can I trust Sony with my details?" It's made me think, "Can I trust ANYONE with them?"

I use an O2 Visa debit card. I don't think I'll ever own a proper credit card, let alone put the details online, and it'll be PSN vouchers from here on in. This intrusion could probably happen anywhere. Sony could have been more secure I'm sure, but we live in an age where the hackers are simply better than the people who build the security infrastructures. I'm worried that this will create a new challenge to hackers who weren't even involved in this intrusion.