PlayStation Network Outage Continues; Sony Apologises

Post by crazymorton @ 05:14pm 23/04/11 | 36 Comments

The official PlayStation blog is carrying a slight update on the recent total failure of the PlayStation Network:

We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.

We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available.

This outage has proven to be especially bad timing, affecting the launch of both Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat on the PlayStation 3.

Sony is blaming an external intrusion, though no other details are available. Speculation abounds that Anonymous is involved, but there's no confirmation yet (and in the comments here, natslovR has pointed out that "they" have said it's not them, for whatever that is worth). promoted/edited forum item

playstation network portal 2 sony

Latest Comments

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darkjedi
Posted 05:23pm 23/4/11

It's bloody annoying, that's for sure. Was trying to sign in to my US account to buy Cho Aniki and keep getting kicked out.

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dais
Posted 05:46pm 23/4/11

I bet Valve are PISSED.

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Outlaw
Posted 07:09pm 23/4/11

Its getting annoying now. Been down since wednesday.

Got media server working now though. Which is f*****g winrar to the max. transcoding on the fly ftw

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Whoop
Posted 07:13pm 23/4/11

Being a 360 fan I only recently saw a PS3 online at my nephews. Wish xbox live was free.

Isn't xbox live way better than PSN though?

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ctd
Posted 07:22pm 23/4/11

Fuggin' BS. I wanna play fifa. I thought surely it would be back by the time I woke up today.

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scuzzy
Posted 07:37pm 23/4/11

Wish xbox live was free.

What isn't it like $6-7 a month?

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Enska
Posted 10:34pm 23/4/11

Isn't xbox live way better than PSN though?

It's a much more user friendly/ better implemented system, but I don't notice any performance differences, and as long as your not playing some obscure game there's a decent population, although xbl has a much larger pop generally.

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Khel
Posted 01:57am 24/4/11

Yeah, theres no difference performance wise, XBox live just has more features built into it whereas PSN is a more bare bones approach. As a developer, xbox live is awesome cos its like this platform that does all the stuff like matchmaking, inviting people into games, ingame chat, parties, etc for you. Whereas on PS3, you gotta code all that stuff yourself if you want it cos all PSN supplies you is network connectivity.

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natslovR
Posted 01:59pm 24/4/11

AnonOps says it wasn't them.

For Once We Didn't Do It
..
"While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves AnonOps wa not related to this incident and takes no responsiblity for it. A more likely explination is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact the outage is accutally an internal problem with the companies servers."

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trog
Posted 02:16pm 24/4/11

Another example of a centralised network model failing gamers at a critical junction. A normal, distributed model wouldn't be suffering like this - you'd still be able to load the game, point to a server you know exists and connect; all that needs to be running is the authentication module

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Thundercracker
Posted 04:10pm 24/4/11

Even a centralised system, when designed properly, can mitigate 99% of downtime from hardware/network failure. You just need to spend the monies.

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Outlaw
Posted 05:23pm 24/4/11

Lets hope they rebuild it with bricks instead of straw.

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Eorl
Posted 06:27pm 24/4/11

We have the technology, we can rebuild it!

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skythra
Posted 11:55pm 24/4/11

Another example of a centralised network model failing gamers at a critical junction. A normal, distributed model wouldn't be suffering like this - you'd still be able to load the game, point to a server you know exists and connect; all that needs to be running is the authentication module

Distributed system? You mean some protocol that is agreed upon, and then allowed that the users can manually connect to it? I mean, what kind of model fits in with a consoles idea of "all in one, you need to know nothing but you can use it flawlessly"?

I mean I understand for a lot of computer culture in the past, geeks didn't mind working out how to dial directly people's phone lines and syncing and then restarting a connection, and that background kind of paved the way to servers and knowledge of how to connect with them. But consoles are a know nothing, game experience.

Unless you're literally weighing up the pro's of the advantages of a console versus a pro of the PC slightly dated model with your statement? Or is there an implementation that you think worked well in practice that should be adopted that would suit?

Because previously while it was distributed you'd have s***** clients like COGS and GameSPY which would centralise the distributed points for your convenience, or some other idea which grabs IP's etc for you to connect. But those were of course filled with limitations. EG: if it was starcraft for example, you could connect to another person's IP directly, but there's no guarantee that they're going to be nearby your skill level (and considering the massive difference between good and bad that's a problem).

I just think that it's not just a clearcut case of "Distributed servers are the only way" i think there's obviously other hybrid implementations (that kind of P2P style) and the pure distributed servers of old (like a q3 server) and a central server (like a bnet/PSN/xboxlive) and they all have downfalls, but also they have benefits.

One problem doesn't mean it's the wrong implementation I think is what i'm saying.

But of course i'm always interested to hear some enlightening facts on why or what system you'd put in place instead of that PSN? Just as a bit of a mental exercise, potentially teaching me something I don't know or understand about the current generation of game hosting (which naturally you'd know a lot more than me about).

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sallenator
Posted 07:42pm 25/4/11

Cannot believe sony is victim to this andf that its taking so long to be back online. Sony deserves to loose millions hurru up PSN for god sake I need my FUT 10

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Raisty
Posted 07:38am 27/4/11

Was just reading the latest details on the PSN outage, sounds a fair bit more serious now for the end users.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained

While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. 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.

last edited by Raisty at 07:38:58 27/Apr/11

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Hogfather
Posted 07:51am 27/4/11

A normal, distributed model wouldn't be suffering like this - you'd still be able to load the game, point to a server you know exists and connect; all that needs to be running is the authentication module

Why wouldn't the attacker have broken the centralised auth module?

Don't get me wrong, I'm with you on the whole dedicated servers things, its just not the solution to everything that goes wrong.

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Khel
Posted 08:01am 27/4/11

I don't even know what the password is on my PSN account, hopefully its not the one I use on my email account.

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natslovR
Posted 08:11am 27/4/11

My psn password is the same one I use here. That explains all my stupid posts recently, including this one.

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Enska
Posted 09:06am 27/4/11

so I heard on triple J news this morning that Sony have completely shut down the network. Is that right or did she just mean the network is still down due to the issues happening?

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Khel
Posted 09:13am 27/4/11

They've completely turned off the network, but that happened almost a week ago. The full story is in the link Raisty posted, but heres the bit about them shutting it down:

We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:

1. Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
2. Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
3. Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.

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Python
Posted 09:13am 27/4/11

I was playing with a friend on the PS3 last week (black ops) online at his place. How long has this outage gone for?

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Raven
Posted 09:25am 27/4/11

Can someone please explain to me how Sony lose a cent by this being down? It's not like people stop buying games because PSN is down for a few days, hell, most people won't even realise it's down until they go to try to play their new game they've bought.
Plus, they're saving on bandwidth all the time it's down.

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Enska
Posted 09:28am 27/4/11

Ah, I didn't read the op as I just assumed the network was dropping in and out due to getting hacked. wow that sucks, I had no idea it was so serious.

Edit* - @Raven, uhm, the massive amount of digital content they would've sold had the network been up maybe? just a guess.

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Twisted
Posted 09:50am 27/4/11

Wish xbox live was free.

Pretty sure I'm paying $0 for XBox Live...isn't that the whole point of their system? A premium subscription and free service for those who don't want to pay.

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Midda
Posted 09:54am 27/4/11

^ What good is a free online service if you can't play online?

I guess you can say the same for PSN at the moment, but at least you can actually play games you bought without having to subscribe.

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Raven
Posted 10:02am 27/4/11

Enska, while I hadn't considered that, they're still not *losing* money.
It's the same arguments as piracy costs money - no, you don't lose money, you just don't make money.

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Enska
Posted 10:10am 27/4/11

Yeah I know they're not losing money technically, but when you consider that PSN and XBL operate in much the same way apples app store does, is it not lost money for them when the service is completely down?

Edit* - lost money, made money. its a bit Tomato,Tomatoe in this context, and in piracy's, so I see why they get the s**** about it.

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Khel
Posted 10:14am 27/4/11

I don't mind paying for XBox Live, its a superior service imo and costs an insignificant amount of money. I think it mostly comes down to personal preference in the end, and logistics (ie, I don't really know many people with PS3s who I would play with online, majority of my friends all have 360's, so I'd rather play on 360).

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Midda
Posted 10:18am 27/4/11

I find Xbox Live and PSN equally terrible compared to online gaming on PC, so if I want to play a game online, I'll generally get it on PC or PS3. It's pretty rare for a console game to entice me into online play, unless it's got coop or something.

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crazymorton
Posted 10:19am 27/4/11

Pretty sure I'm paying $0 for XBox Live...isn't that the whole point of their system? A premium subscription and free service for those who don't want to pay.

yeah you're right to an extent. it is free for basic stuff but to play against others online you need a Gold membership which has a monthly fee of $10.95 or $79.95 for 12 months.

as opposed to PSN which I believe was free to play online?

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Fixah
Posted 12:35pm 27/4/11

$79.95 for 12 months.

That's retail. Shop around the net and you can get it for as low as $55 for 13 months.

Talking of which mine finally ran out the other day. I had something like an extra 6 months of free live just through promotional codes. Might need to top up soon.

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hef
Posted 01:22pm 27/4/11

FFFFFFUUUUUUUU-

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/sony-admits-utter-psn-failure-your-personal-data-has-been-stolen.ars

Sony has finally come clean about the "external intrusion" that has caused the company to take down the PlayStation Network service, and the news is almost as bad as it can possibly get. The hackers have all your personal information, although Sony is still unsure about whether your credit card data is safe. Everything else on file when it comes to your account is in the hands of the hackers.

In other words, Sony's security has failed in a spectacular fashion, and we're just now finding out about it. In both practical and PR terms, this is a worst-case scenario.

What did they get?

Here is the data that Sony is sure has been compromised if you have a PlayStation Network Account:

Your name
Your address (city, state, and zip)
Country
E-mail address
Birthday
PSN password and login name

"It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained," Sony announced. While the company claims that there is "no evidence" that credit card information has been compromised, it won't rule out the possibility.

Their advice is to be safe, rather than sorry. "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."