Sony's Welcome Back program detailed: Free games, movies for all

Image by Getty Images via @daylifehttp://www.tecca.com/news/2011/05/17/sony-welcome-back-program-psn-downtime

Some big name titles are included in the new customer appreciation program

Sony's PlayStation Network is finally (mostly) back up on its feet, and now that gamers have had a chance to hop on, change their passwords, and resume some much-need online gaming, the attention turns to Sony's "Welcome Back" program — the company's way of apologizing for the downtime. The program offers a decent selection of free games and services to get Sony back in the good graces of PlayStation 3 and PSP owners.

If you own a PlayStation 3 and were affected by the downtime, you'll be able to choose 2 free games from a selection of five, including:

• Dead Nation
• Infamous
• LittleBigPlanet
• Super Stardust HD
• Wipeout HD 

PSP owners can cherry-pick a pair of games from this list of 4:

• LittleBigPlanet PSP
• ModNation Racers
• Pursuit Force
• Killzone Liberation 

In addition to the free games, PSN users will also be granted access to a selection of PlayStation Network movies over an upcoming weekend, the specific titles of which will be revealed later. Also, gamers not currently subscribed to PlayStation Plus — Sony's premium PSN service that grants game discounts and other perks — will get a free month to try it out, while existing Plus subscribers will get 60 additional days for free. Sony's PlayStation Home virtual world will offer users 100 free items as well, so if you've never given it a try this will be your best opportunity. All of these freebies will begin flowing once the PlayStation Store is back up and running, the timetable for which has not been revealed.

In addition to Sony's program, streaming service Hulu is offering users who have their Hulu Plus premium accounts synced with a PlayStation 3 a 25-day credit for the inconvenience of not being able to stream due to the network outtage. Hulu Plus subscribers will begin getting emails shortly that contain a link to redeem the credit.
More here
http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/05/17/sony-welcome-back-program-psn-downtime/
Also more here.

Details for PlayStation Network and Qriocity Customer Appreciation Program in North America

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/16/details-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-customer-appreciation-program-in-north-america/

• A selection of “On Us” rental movie titles will be available to PlayStation Network customers over one weekend, where Video Service is available. Those titles will be announced soon.
• 30 days free PlayStation Plus membership for non PlayStation Plus subscribers.
• Existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an additional 60 days of free subscription.
• Existing Music Unlimited Premium Trial subscription members will receive an additional 30 days of free premium subscription.
• Additional 30 days + time lost for existing members of Music Unlimited Premium/Basic subscription free of charge for existing Premium/Basic members.
• To welcome users Home, PlayStation Home will be offering 100 free virtual items. Additional free content will be released soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.

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• PlayStation Network "Customer Appreciation Program" Detailed (webpronews.com)
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• NEWS | Free Full PlayStation 3 Games for Loyal Gamers. (mistercomputer.wordpress.com)
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Sony begins partial PlayStation Network operation

Image via Wikipediahttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110515/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_sony_playstation
TOKYO – Sony began restoring its PlayStation Network service in the United States and Europe on Sunday after shutting down the service almost a month ago due to a massive security breach affecting over 100 million online accounts.
Restored operations are mainly limited to online gaming, chat and music streaming services. Sony said it aimed to fully restore the PlayStation Network by the end of May.
Sony also began Sunday a phased restoration of its Qriocity movie and music services which share the PlayStation Network's server, said Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka.
Limited services will also resume in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Middle East, and Sony said it will start restoring the service for users in Asia soon.
Sony's PlayStation network is a system that links gamers worldwide in live play. Sony shut it down on April 20 after discovering a hacker attack.
Sony said personal data, including credit card numbers, may have been stolen. But the company said Sunday it had not received any reports of the stolen information being used illegally.
Kazuho Hirai, chief of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation video game unit, said in a statement that the company has beefed up security measures to protect customers' personal data.
While the partial service allows users to enjoy video games and online chat, Sony said consumers still cannot buy video games or other content by using credit cards.
"While we understand the importance of getting our services back online, we did not rush to do so at the expense of extensively and aggressively testing our enhanced security measures," Hirai said.
Among the 100 million user accounts, Sony said about 92 million can access the limited PlayStation network service.

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Sony considers offering reward to help catch hackers PS3 Hacked!

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeSee the full Article at the link below. If your on PS3 stay up on your records and bank accounts.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20060661-83.html
The letter, which is embedded below, says that the systems involved use 130 servers and 50 distinct software programs. Sony first noticed the attack on April 19, when its network team discovered that several PlayStation Network servers had rebooted themselves unexpectedly. Four servers were immediately taken offline in order to figure out what was going on. By the next day, it was clear that another six had been attacked, and they were taken offline as well. By April 23, computer forensic teams confirmed that intruders had used what Sony describes as "very sophisticated and aggressive techniques to obtain unauthorized access to the servers and hide their presence from the system administrators" and had deleted log files showing the footprints of where in the system they had been. By April 24, Sony had hired three different computer security firms to investigate the attack.
By April 25, it had determined that the attack had involved some credit card accounts. Consumers were notified the next day, though Sony did not know initially that the credit card accounts had been compromised. The Wall Street Journal has a play-by-play.
The letter also says that Sony had stored approximately 12.3 million active and expired credit cards, approximately 5.6 million of which belonged to customers in the U.S.
"We of course deeply regret that this incident has occured and have apologized to our customers," Hirai wrote. "We believe we are taking aggressive action to right what you correctly perceive is a grievous wrong against our consumers: a wrong that is the result of a malicious, sophisticated and well orchestrated criminal attack on us and our consumers."
Earlier in the day, rumors of a third attack circulated in online chat rooms, but those reports couldn't be independently confirmed. Another attack couldn't come at a worse time for Sony. Analysts are estimating that cleaning up the damage from the first two could cost the company $1 billion or more before the incident is fully resolved.
Earlier this week people claiming to represent Anonymous denied any role in the theft of credit card numbers from Sony. However, Sony said in a letter to Congress that a text file containing a catch phrase often invoked by Anonymous and intended to taunt the company was left behind by the attackers. On Monday, Sony disclosed that the attack had involved not only its PlayStation Gaming Network, which has been offline since April 20, but also its Sony Online Entertainment division, which includes online games like Everquest and Star Wars: Galaxies.
Sony's letter to Sen. Blumenthal is here.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20060661-83.html#ixzz1LtA3EpAi

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PlayStation hackers may have users' credit card info - CNN.com

Image via WikipediaIf you think this is only about Playstation you are sadly mistaken. Anyone that has actually read my articles on RFID and the Tech behind Internet hacking and so, will know how this impacts the entire internet world we live in today. This just goes to show how easy it is to get your information. If you don't want your info out there for the world to grab. Don't put it online anywhere. Including your Cell phones, All pictures, Texts, anything you write on a website is there for the world to see. Not just your friends. Fact is. Security is a very false word when it comes to the internet and phone towers and satellites. Will people read this and understand? Probably not.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/04/29/play.station.credit.card/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

People whose credit cards are linked to Sony's PlayStation Network may have been compromised, report says.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Sony PlayStation hacker or hackers may have stolen users' credit card data
• New York Times blog: Security researchers see evidence of such theft
• Sony says it's not clear credit card numbers were stolen, urges precaution
• The PlayStation Network has been down since April 20

(CNN) -- In addition to usernames, e-mail addresses and passwords, the hacker or hackers who cracked into Sony's PlayStation network also may have nabbed credit card numbers.
Sony says there's no reason to believe credit card numbers of the network's 77 million users have been stolen, but security researchers tell the New York Times' Bits Blog otherwise.
"Sony is saying the credit cards were encrypted, but we are hearing that the hackers made it into the main database, which would have given them access to everything, including credit card numbers," Mathew Solnik, a security consultant with iSEC Partners, told the Times' Nick Bilton.
Bilton quotes three security researchers who say they've seen talk about the stolen credit card numbers in dark corners of the Internet.
They say as many as 2.2 million credit card numbers may have been stolen as part of the attack. One researcher says the hackers appear to be trying to sell some of the credit card information for more than $100,000.
CNN has not independently verified these claims.
The Sony PlayStation Network -- which lets users play games with friends in remote locations, purchase games over the Internet and stream movies -- has been down since April 20 following a major infiltration of its security system.
Some PlayStation Network users link their credit cards to the online service so they can quickly purchase games and make other transactions.
Sony says personal data has been stolen, since the database that includes that information was not encrypted. But the company has maintained it has no reason to believe the hackers have access to PlayStation users' credit card numbers, which it says were stored in an encrypted database.
Still, Sony has encouraged people to take precautions:
"While all credit card information stored in our systems is encrypted and there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility," the company said in a blog post on Thursday. "If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
Some PlayStation users have been changing their credit card numbers as a precaution.
E-mail addresses and passwords also are valuable to cyber criminals.

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