Now that Sony has dropped its trousers and admitted that hackers may have access to the personal info of countless PlayStation Network users, the bad PR has snowballed like crazy. The news has gone mainstream, with FOX News and CNBC both jumping on the story. Meanwhile, CNN.com has the story on the frontpage.
Lovely!
More interestingly, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is furious with Sony, and has written to Jack Tretton demanding to know why consumers were not fully informed of the details surrounding the PSN's downtime.
"Although the breach occurred nearly a week ago," wrote Blumenthal, "Sony has not notified customers of the intrusion, or provided information that is vital to allowing individuals to protect themselves from identity theft, such as informing users whether their personal or financial information may have been compromised."
Meanwhile, the more idiotic Sony fans on Twitter and Facebook are defending the company, acting like this situation has been -- in any way -- acceptable.
Frankly, I think the senator makes a better argument than "Hey gaybox losers get the fuck out,,, this does not concern ya." You can read the rather more eloquent politician's statement below ...
April 26, 2011
Mr. Jack Tretton
President and CEO
Sony Computer Entertainment America
919 East Hillsdale Boulevard
Foster City, CA USA 94404
Dear Mr. Tretton:
I am writing regarding a recent data breach of Sony's PlayStation Network service. I am troubled by the failure of Sony to immediately notify affected customers of the breach and to extend adequate financial data security protections.
It has been reported that on April 20, 2011, Sony's PlayStation Network suffered an "external intrusion" and was subsequently disabled. News reports estimate that 50 million to 75 million consumers – many of them children – access the PlayStation Network for video and entertainment. I understand that the PlayStation Network allows users to store credit card information online to facilitate the purchasing of content such as games and movies through the PlayStation Network. A breach of such a widely used service immediately raises concerns of data privacy, identity theft, and other misuse of sensitive personal and financial data, such as names, email addresses, and credit and debit card information.
When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised. Additionally, PlayStation Network users should be provided with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services, for two years, the costs of which should be borne by Sony. Affected individuals should also be provided with sufficient insurance to protect them from the possible financial consequences of identity theft.
I am concerned that PlayStation Network users' personal and financial information may have been inappropriately accessed by a third party. Compounding this concern is the troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach. Although the breach occurred nearly a week ago, Sony has not notified customers of the intrusion, or provided information that is vital to allowing individuals to protect themselves from identity theft, such as informing users whether their personal or financial information may have been compromised. Nor has Sony specified how it intends to protect these consumers.
PlayStation Network users deserve more complete information on the data breach, as well as the assurance that their personal and financial information will be securely maintained. I appreciate your prompt response on this important issue.
Sincerely,
/s/
Richard Blumenthal
United States Senate
Contest:
10:30 PM on 04.26.2011 | 
Kiss your ass goodbye, Playstation.
that's all for my input
sigh...
The New York Times had an article about all this on their site, but it was pretty shit too. They had a quote at the end from some random guy--I think it was just a gamer, not anybody special--who basically said "Hardcore Sony fans might be considering jumping over to Xbox because of this." I'm paraphrasing, but it was just plain old fanboy baiting, as if people can't own and enjoy both consoles?
I hated the 200 questions it took to create a psn id. This is why.
So, Richard uses 4chan?
Because prevention is better than cure. Ever had to deal with a bank or credit card company over somebody misusing your info? It's not fun especially when said fraudster is overseas.
Because prevention is better than cure. Ever had to deal with a bank or credit card company over somebody misusing your info? It's not fun especially when said fraudster is overseas.
Furthermore, it seems like Senator Blumenthal isn't flying off the handle or saying anything that isn't actually true. Sony's method for releasing information is that it... doesn't. At least not in anything that can be honestly referred to as a timely fashion. In the modern world that business strategy just doesn't fucking work. Any light that can be shed on that shit by the mainstream news media, or particularly the business news media, is potentially a good thing in my book.
I'll call it right now in the next few days fox news will make up some bullshit about how video games steal all of you're personal info.
Do you really feel what boils down to "idk?" to be satisfactory? I don't. Not when it comes to my personal information. Sony was quick to tout their 70 million users, but when it came to protecting and informing them, they decided to was a better idea to kick the can down the road.
If you're not sure, tell them anyways. It's better that they be prepared, then left out in the cold wondering what the fuck while getting exponentially angrier.
That being said, the congress dude is probably doing it for hits. Then again, I don't think all of Sony's 70+ million Users know about this situation that could turn out to be dire, and someone needs to notifiy them. Not everyone reads the PS Blog.
But... They didn't know until the last 24 hours that customer's vital information was compromised (according to Sony at least, so take that with a grain of salt if you'd like). Kind of hard to inform people that they need to change their credit card information when they didn't know what exactly had been compromised.
And they did inform people of the intrusion. On the 22nd. When Sony said "there was an external intrusion". Just saying, Mr. Blumenthal.
Not trying to justify anything and I'm trying to remain unbiased in this situation, but I do feel as if people are painting their own picture of the events to make things look worse. Or something. I dunno. I'm gonna go back to playing MvC3 and forget about this situation for a while.
That said, I hope Sony finds out who's responsible for this and nails their ass(es) to the fucking wall.
*sigh* I just want to play some Dead Space 2 and Portal 2. Get the damn PSN back online and stop pissing off consumers. Furthermore, DON'T ATTRACT THE ATTENTION OF ANONYMOUS. I said it a while ago and I'll say it again: You do not fuck with Anonymous. Even a company as big as Sony should fear them, and this kind of shit is why.
Even if Anon isn't responsible, I guarantee the information on how to hack the PSN spawned from Anonymous's initial attacks.
Certainly, they have to realize this is affecting their bottom line. How many people have bought SOCOM 4, Portal 2 or Mortal Kombat since this has happened? How many people have stopped buying PS3 games period? How many people are looking to trade in their PS3s and games at this point?
This is truly the worst console generation I've ever been a part of. One company is run by a bunch of incompetents, another was pleased to make sure it's system took off in the first year and then never came back to make sure it wasn't being flooded by shovelware, and the other is doing everything in their power to mimic the guy who's being flooded by shovelware by releasing a fancy camera and following it up with absolutely no support.
If it weren't for the fact that fighting games never come to the PC, that's where I'd be from here on out.