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Playstation Network Down Time
I didn’t want to blog about every single thing that was going on with Playstation network being hacked and the service being turned off. I’ve gone a head and put a timeline together of all the events that happened as well. I’ve also wanted to talk about PCI standards and my opinions on how Sony handled the situation.
What is PCI? The PCI Security Standards Council which is responsible for the development, management, education, and awareness of the PCI Security Standards including Data Security Standards, Payment Application Data Security Standards and PIN transaction Security requirements. Why is this important? Well because Sony stores sensitive data and credit card information on it’s servers. Basically they audit your servers, provide a list of recommendations that you should implement to protect your servers. After a company is audited it’s recommended that you look to implement the recommendations on your servers to make you more secure, rinse and repeat.
I’m curious to know when Sony’s last PCI audit happened, what recommendations came out of the audit, what did Sony fix and Sony didn’t fix?
To me, Sony handled this perfectly. They were hacked but didn’t know to what extent. They hired professionals to help and than once they realized the extent of the damage they informed the public.
Back to the Timeline:
April 3, 2011 – a group called “Anonymous” launches cyber attacks against various Sony websites because Sony was suing George “GEoHot” Hotz and Graf_Chokolo who hacked the PS3
April 11, 2011 – Sony settles with Hotz
April 19, 2011 – Sony’s Network team detects unauthorized activity in the PlayStation Network system
April 20, 2011 – Sony discovers unauthorized intrusion and that data had been taken off the PSN servers. Sony hires a forensic investigation team. They can’t determine what data was taken and the Playstation network was taken off line.
April 21, 2011 – Sony hires a second forensic team
April 25, 2011 – Forensics team determine the scope of personal data that was illegally taken from all PSN and Qriocity servers. No indication if credit cards where taken.
April 26, 2011 – Sony finally informs the public of the hack and notifies authorities of the attack
April 28, 2011 – Hotz denies any invovlement
April 29, 2011 – House of Representatives wants more information about the attack
April 30, 2011 – Kazuo Hirai speaks to the public for the first time about the attack and apologies to its customers. Hirai states that PSN should be back up a week and that network security has been beefed up.
- Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems
-This includes titles requiring online verification and downloaded games - Access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3/PSP for existing subscribers
- Access to account management and password reset
- Access to download un-expired Movie Rentals on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
- PlayStation®Home
- Friends List
- Chat Functionality
The new security measures implemented include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Added automated software monitoring and configuration management to help defend against new attacks
- Enhanced levels of data protection and encryption
- Enhanced ability to detect software intrusions within the network, unauthorized access and unusual activity patterns
- Implementation of additional firewalls
Complimentary Offering and “Welcome Back” Appreciation Program
While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, the company is committed to helping its customers protect their personal data and will provide a complimentary offering to assist users in enrolling in identity theft protection services and/or similar programs. The implementation will be at a local level and further details will be made available shortly in each region.
The company will also rollout the PlayStation Network and Qriocity “Welcome Back” program, to be offered worldwide, which will be tailored to specific markets to provide our consumers with a selection of service options and premium content as an expression of the company’s appreciation for their patience, support and continued loyalty.
Central components of the “Welcome Back” program will include:
- Each territory will be offering selected PlayStation entertainment content for free download. Specific details of this content will be announced in each region soon.
- All existing PlayStation Network customers will be provided with 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus premium service. Current members of PlayStation Plus will receive 30 days free service.
- Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity subscribers (in countries where the service is available) will receive 30 days free service.
Additional “Welcome Back” entertainment and service offerings will be rolled out over the coming weeks as the company returns the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services to the quality standard users have grown to enjoy and strive to exceed those exceptions.
May 1, 2011 – Sony finds files that says “Anonymous,” “We are legion.” That’s the slogan for the hacktivist group.
May 2, 2011 – Playstation blog update ” One other point to clarify is from from this weekends’ 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.”
May 4, 2011 – Sony sends letter to Congress answering questions.
May 5, 2011 - Sony’s global network and security teams at Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment began the final stages of internal testing of the new PSN system
May 6, 2011 - More testing
May 14, 2011 – PSN returns sort of? Video from Kazuo Hirai
PS3 software update announced – The update (v3.61) is mandatory and is available now
May 15, 2011 – users updating passwords, severs can’t handle the load, suspended servers to catch up. Sony recently had to turn off services for approximately 30 minutes to clear the queue.
May 16, 2011 – PSN FAQ – Restoration Questions Answered. Details for PlayStation Network and Qriocity Customer Appreciation Program in North America
May 18, 2011 – Sony temporarily took down the PSN and Qriocity password reset page. Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved. In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed.
May 24, 2011 – PSN down Maintenance
May 30, 2011 – Full PSN Services, including PlayStation Store, Return This Week
June 1, 2011 – Important PlayStation Network Maintenance,The server maintenance performed at this time represents a crucial step in the full restoration for PSN, including the PlayStation Store.
June 1,2011 – PSN STORE BACKONLINE!
June 3, 2011 – Welcome Back Program Available Now – Details Inside
Q: What’s in the Welcome Back Program?
A: To start, all PSN members who had signed up before the outage (April 20, 2011) will be able to select two games for the PS3 system and two games for the PSP system.
For PS3 owners, go to the ‘Welcome Back’ section in the PlayStation Store, and select 2 titles from the following list:
• Dead Nation
• inFAMOUS
• LittleBigPlanet
• Super Stardust HD
• Wipeout HD + Fury
For PSP owners, go to the ‘Welcome Back’ section of PlayStation Store on your PSP system and select 2 titles from the following list:
• LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
• ModNation Racers
• Pursuit Force
• Killzone Liberation
Massive PSN store update
June 4, 2011 – PlayStation Home Welcome Back Package Details
June 6, 2011 – PS3 System Software Update (v3.65)
read morePlaystation Store
ony and Sony Computer Entertainment Announce Full Restoration of PlayStation®Network Services
Full PlayStation®Network Services Restored;Music Unlimited Powered by Qriocity™ to Become Available on PlayStation®3, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), VAIO and other PCs
Tokyo, May 31, 2011 – Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced today that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will fully restore all PlayStation®Network services in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea by the end of this week. The company will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity™ for PlayStation®3 (PS3®), PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), VAIO and other PCs. Details for Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea as well as the remaining services on Qriocity will be announced as they become available.
The company implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions. The first phase of PlayStation Network and Qriocity restoration began on May 15 in the Americas and Europe/PAL territories, followed by Japan and Asian countries and regions on May 28, when the company brought partial services back online. With this partial restoration users were able to access to some of the services such as online game play, account management, friend lists and chat functionality were restored. The full restoration of PlayStation Network as well as part of services to become available on Qriocity will include:
• Full functionality on PlayStation®Store
• In-game commerce
• Ability to redeem vouchers and codes
• Full functionality on Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3, PSP, VAIO and other PCs
• Full functionality on Media Go
Customers can now purchase and download games and video content from the PlayStation®Store on PS3 or PSP. In addition, consumers will have full access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity through PS3, PSP, VAIO and other PC’s. Service restoration of Video on Demand powered by Qriocity™ and Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for a variety of network-enabled Sony devices will be announced later.
“We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online so that our fans can again enjoy the first class entertainment experience they have come to love,” said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation. “We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time.”
The company will be offering customers a “Welcome Back” package of services and premium content to all registered PlayStation Network* and Qriocity account services. The details of this program will continue to be detailed regionally.
read moreGears of War 3 Launch
I’ve been a little late in posting the Gears of War 3 launch trailer but as it’s my favorite franchise I need to post it. Check it out, just watching it gives me goose bumps
read more
Gears of War 3 Thrashball Cole Plushie Codes!
Everyone knows I’m a huge Gears of War fan and I’ve posted tons on on my blog like: Combustible Map Pack Review,Gears of War 2 Review , Gears of War 2 launch party ,
Codes:
Code 1: 7JJJ6-YJTH2-FXW97-D2XGX-DKX4Z
Code 2: F6346-CFPQT-4DF6Y-4FY2C-CFX6Z
Code 3: MJRMG-GVK37-HKJD7-3729G-HDDYZ
Code 4: M73H4-MMKDP-MD6MJ-6QYJT-DY6FZ
Code 5: VVKWG-9GWRH-XPVGY-7X42M-CC6MZ
My unexpected last minute trip to Pax East
March 11 2011 – today I set out for Boston, I’ll enjoy a nice breakfast at Frans Diner and than catch my bus to Buffalo. US customs actually pulled up Pax on his computer to see what it was all about. Buffalo airport was and my flighty was delayed over 2 hours due to b weather on the east coast. I really enjoyed my Jetblue flight. Landing in Boston was great as I didn’t the airport was surrounded by water. The silver line bus and my Charlie card got me to the convention centre in time to check out Stepto’s (www.stepto.com) panel on Xbox policy enforcement. What was really neat to see from a geeks perspective was Vulcan the tool his team uses to police Xbox Live. This was the first demo showed to anyone outside the Microsoft walls. After that I caught up Dario, Kyle and Bret and came back to the hotel showered, had Cheesecake factory and caught some sleep.
March 12 2011 8:00 am – the sun is up in Boston and I need to find food and than make my way to Cambridge Bestbuy to buy a Fitbit and than head to the convention centre.
March 12 2011 1:52 – the original updated deleted and pissed me off. So here goes update number 2. Pax is in full effect today. This morning at 11 am I attended the panel called Owned but Independent: Running a Studio at Activision hosted by Dan Amrich [Social Media Manager, Activision. The panel discussed how they operate independently from the mothership and Bobby K. They also discussed the green light program. They also discussed how involved Activision is on a day to day basis. There involvement depends on where in the project the studio is, towards the beginning it could be once a week at the beginning and towards the end it could be several hours a day.
Lunch was overpriced at $13.00 for a burger and pop
2:00 pm panel is Community: Some Assembly Required and Batteries Definitely Not Included hosted by DMZilla Doty [Community Manager, Xbox LIVE]. He talks about his role at Microsoft and what he does for the Xbox team.
On a side note, I don’t get cosplay. People dressing up they look cool but I don’t get why you would want to spend 3 days dressed up. Something i would never do.
March 12 5:15pm – I’m at the Major Nelson podcast. Stepto says “be excellent to everyone”
Cliffyb just left the podcast!
Someone just proposed at the end of the podcast. Very interesting way to end the podcast and I have to say so myself to one the best times I had in Boston so far.
After the show I returned back to the hotel ad relaxed for a bit before going get some Wendys for dinner and on the way back stopped again at the Cheesecake factory for some dessert. The guys just hung around the hotel all night and talked about what games they saw and what I should check out.
March 13 2011 12:52 pm – I got up at 9:30, showered and took the shuttle bus to the convention centre. I walked around the area to find a Starbucks but did not succeed I got an email from Jetblue telling me to check into my flight and print my boarding pass. Achievement unlocked first one to checkin in for the flight. I also had an overpriced and not very good steak sandwich.
Now it was finally time to hit the show floor and the first thing I see is a Gears of War board coming sometime in the near future. So excited for it!.
Gunnar optics look really cool
I may get into my first card game and pick up a World of Warcraft starter deck. I had a lot of fun
Homefront I’m sold on this and will be picking it up on Tuesday
Everyone knows I’m a HUGE Gears of War fan and they have GOW3 beta here. I walked by and stomps and watches for bit. Just seeing that made my day
Redfaction looked interesting. I really didn’t like the last Redfaction game
Portal 2 – the original Portal literally made me sick to my stomach so I’m not sure I’ll be picking this one up.
Orcs must die by Robot was fun. Definitely picking that one up on PC.
Duke Nukem Forever. It’s been forever eh? The demo was a lot of fun but man does it look dated
Nintendo 3DS it really works what can I say. I’m sold. I want one now!
Sunday ended with Dinner and a relaxing evening. My trip home was easy as cake. Customs was a breeze.
Update: The following weekend I’m starting to feel normal.
Update # 2 : photos!
