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Post by Dan @ 01:42pm 03/05/11 | 22 Comments
Although it was first reported that Sony's online game publishing division had not been affected by the recent PSN and Qriocity woes, Sony Online Entertainment have issued a statement confirming that the intrusion has indeed extended to them and that as many as 24.6 million SOE accounts may have been breeched and 12,700 stored customer credit card numbers may have been stolen.

SOE's systems include the user accounts for their many online games such as Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies and most recently DC Universe Online. More disappointingly, the press release admits that the the data was allegedly stole on April 16th and 17th, the same time as the PlayStation Network intrusion, yet even with all the PSN furore they have seemingly only discovered this now.
Upon discovery of this additional information, the company promptly shut down all servers related to SOE services while continuing to review and upgrade all of its online security systems in the face of these unprecedented cyber-attacks.

On May 1, Sony apologized to its customers for the inconvenience caused by its network services outages. The company is working with the FBI and continuing its own full investigation while working to restore all services.

Sony is making this disclosure as quickly as possible after the discovery of the theft, and the company has posted information on its website and will send e-mails to all consumers whose data may have been stolen.
The release ambiguously refers to the breach as affecting "non-us" credit and debit card records and only specifically mentions out-dated 2007 records from several European countries. However given their slow response on this matter, we recommend that any Australian customers should also take the proper precautions. All SOE customers should be aware that unscrupulous entities responsible for the attack very likely have access to a large portion of data that could include their name, address, e-mail address, birthdate, gender, phone number, login name and hashed (not plain text, but potentially decryptable) password. All users should ensure that if they use the same account username and password on other services, that they change those as soon as possible.

In an attempt to save face, SOE will be offering 30 days free time on subscriptions and are also preparing what they're referring to as "make good" plan for PS3 players of Free Realms and DC Universe Online. See the complete press release for more details.



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Latest Comments
trillion
Posted 01:53pm 03/5/11
Interestingly the most recent charge to my card was by a government agency, coincidence != correlation?

glasses on. Yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhh. /horatio

Pirroh
Posted 02:07pm 03/5/11
God damn Sony, get your s*** together!
d^
Posted 02:11pm 03/5/11
Hmm something tells me they're going to need more than one month of free s*** to make people happy.
step
Posted 02:14pm 03/5/11
Sony is making this disclosure as quickly as possible
That's laughable.
Eorl
Posted 02:34pm 03/5/11
Wonder what they are going to do come E3. Maybe a stand with "donate to the Sony Help Appeal"?
DM
Posted 03:06pm 03/5/11
Wait... so between the 2 attacks they have lost about 100,000,000 accounts, and seperate peoples information? Why the f*** would anyone ever trust sony again with so much as sitting the right way on a toilet seat?
Eorl
Posted 03:12pm 03/5/11
Who said people are going to? Their stock ahs dropped 5% from when first heard, and another 8% in the past few days. It closed at 19.65 or something, down from 36ish. They've dun goofed.
natslovR
Posted 03:19pm 03/5/11
What's the proper precaution? Change my name to lower the risk of identity fraud? Or are you talking in relation to credit card abuse, where the onus is on the biller to prove any transactions I dispute?

I had to dispute a double charge on my visa a few weeks ago, and visa wanted to reverse both transactions not just the dupe. Cc's are widely used by consumers BECAUSE consumers are protected.
Reality
Posted 03:23pm 03/5/11
i paid for planetside a long time ago via cc. great.
Dan
Posted 03:36pm 03/5/11
What's the proper precaution?
Well my first thoughts would be:
1\ If you use the same password elsewhere, change it.
2\ If the answers to security questions elsewhere could be answered with any of the information stored in your SOE, change them
3\ Keep a closer eye on your CC statements for charges you didn't make.
4\ Just generally be aware that someone out there might try and use your personal details in various ways for financial gain.
Mosfxx
Posted 03:42pm 03/5/11
I had my CC details saved in a PSN account wayyy back in the day, since then via telephone I have closed my account as my PS3 got stolen. Should I be concerned?
Eorl
Posted 03:45pm 03/5/11
I've just asked ANZ to close my account and re-open a new one. I put my CC details on DC Universe, and I'm not sure if they got my details off. Not going to risk it though.
Outlaw
Posted 04:55pm 03/5/11
i paid for planetside a long time ago via cc. great.

same :(
Hogfather
Posted 05:14pm 03/5/11
Who said people are going to? Their stock ahs dropped 5% from when first heard, and another 8% in the past few days. It closed at 19.65 or something, down from 36ish. They've dun goofed.

Pretty sure that the rhetorical question was rhetorical.
Ozzy
Posted 07:33pm 03/5/11
If SONY does this how much better or worse are the other companies?

A good lesson here to protect your credit card and pay subscriptions in other ways such as pay pal etc...
HERMITech
Posted 07:47pm 03/5/11
If SONY does this how much better or worse are the other companies?

A good lesson here to protect your credit card and pay subscriptions in other ways such as pay pal etc...


Hate to rain on your parade here,
Your do realise that your details are still online, you know, possibly with your PAYPAL account...
Eorl
Posted 08:01pm 03/5/11
Yeah but I don't think PayPal keeps em lying around without encryptions and not in plain text files.
Sc00bs
Posted 08:19pm 03/5/11
f***** sony.

1 month of 'free' plus psn is f***** s*** when alot of the users have to go to so much effort to change passwords, cancel credit cards etc...
step
Posted 08:20pm 03/5/11
Yeah but I don't think PayPal keeps em lying around without encryptions and not in plain text files.
That and it's a 3rd party service so your details aren't kept by the original party, they're just paid through their accounts. That's what I assume as because when I pay for a subscription for a few things, the original vendor is unable to keep charging me for it.
deadlyf
Posted 08:39pm 03/5/11
It does make you think that we need a better system other than user name and password for identifying ourselves online.
Eorl
Posted 10:57pm 03/5/11
Or, a better encryption service, or at the very least someone needs to educate Sony.
teq
Posted 11:02pm 03/5/11
It's highly unlikely that they storked credit card data unencrypted, if they did they're violating PCI DSS requirement #4

http://www.fireblog.com/decoding-pci-dss-requirement-4-encrypting-and-storing-credit-card-data/
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