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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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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