Sony/Anonymous Nonsense & the PSN Outage ... also GeoHotz

[Ⓐaron]

I think so. I haven't been keeping up with it in the last week but from what I was hearing the last time it was down they were going to require all content to be approved by specific distributors before it could be distributed via PSN. But like I said I might've just been misinformed, or misinterpreted what I was told, or the person who told me could've been misinterpreting something, or who knows what.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

...if I'm understanding what's happened correctly, then so are Sony's. If I'm not misinterpreting this they've basically made it impossible for homebrew game developers who don't have distribution deals with major retailers to distribute their products to customers, and it appears that they're doing away with region-free content as well.

I'm with Dacon. I don't recall ANY mention of anything realted to this at all. If you have links to anything, I might be able to better explain. :\


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[Tifabelle]

So. PSN. What's the deal?

It's been down for days for "maintenance" purposes. Do you think it's related? I don't think it's anon, but I also don't think it's a coincidence. It might just be a precautionary move on Sony's part, although they'd be losing a lot of money, so maybe not.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Someone hacked the network and Sony shut it down to do a thorough investigation. Anon claimed it had nothing to do with this attack.

They said the network will probably be back up in Japan today, and it'll be back up in the US and EU tomorrow.

 

[Arianna]

My personal opinion is that no matter the cause, to hack the network was a greedy thing to do.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah they announced they weren't responsible, and though I'm inclined to believe them, the condescending tone of their release pissed me off even more.

And even if they didn't actively do it, its possible they screwed something up in the servers when they were doing it.

 

[Cookie Monster]

The attack was very similar to Anon's attack, and Anon said whoever did it learned from them. But, according to sources this attack was more damaging, as the hackers also attacked Sony's Qriocity Network and somehow gained access to administrative developer accounts.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I've heard that some people didn't know about this, but in case anyone's wondering, you should still be able to use Netflix.

If you just wait for Netflix to connect to the video selection screen in the background of the login screen, and then attempt to sign in to PSN, when you get the "Undergoing Maintenance" message, just it Ok, and it should go away and let you watch anything you like.


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[Scias]

Sony unsure if credit card info compromised in PSN outage - Report
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6310198.html

...Aaaaand that's why my trust in online services is zero.

Yeah, I know it's really comfortable and quick and all that but, I don't know, maybe I'm too old school but I like my games in my hands, on cartridges and CDs AND I prefer my saved games on memory cards. Things I can touch with my hands.

The problem is that, videogame industry is going more and more into the online thing and :/ I don't know what to think, PSP Go was awful and the "you have to be online to play SINGLE PLAYER MODE" crap that Ubisoft pulled with Assassins Creed 2 was laughable.

Anon or not, things like THIS just proves my point.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Fantastic.

This is why I don't use my credit card on my Playstation. I just buy those PSN cards whenever I need something.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I don't recall any reports that suggest that Identity theft is even a factor in the outage, so the fact that they don't know if it happened isn't surprising. Related: http://kotaku.com/5795474/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-playstation-network-outage


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[Tennyo]

Fantastic.

This is why I don't use my credit card on my Playstation. I just buy those PSN cards whenever I need something.

I think this is what I ill be doing from now on. :/

But of course once my info is in the system I'm sure it's there forever, huh?

 

[Ghost X]

There seems to be many issues in this, that I can't be fucked researching until I'm consciously aware that I'm being affected (beyond the PSN downage). I get the impression that Sony is half wrong, and Anon is half wrong, and the hacker is half wrong.

What is important though is the legal implications. If any new precedents come out of this, what will it mean as far as property laws are concerned etc? Whatever comes about, I hope a lot of thought is put into it. The last thing I want is corporations getting more power over what I do with my property I may have bought from them. Its like a government getting inbetween a woman and her uterus ... except the woman didn't buy her uterus from the government.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is where each party is right, I hope that is reflected in whatever eventuates.

 

[Makoeyes987]

I'm not gonna stop using my credit card for PSN, but I will admit that I am a bit worried about how their service network was compromised.

It'd be great of Sony just came clean and stated what all happened, instead of being all secretive and crap. I know they pride themselves on their network and all, but acting all CIA isn't making users feel any better.

Whoever did this crap, is a cunt. Period.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Like Microsoft they should have banned any fucker just for thinking about rooting their console. This shit has been going on for almost two years, and now they're trying to do something about it? Too late, cowboy.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Well, Sony probably tried to pride themselves as having a more calm and less anal type of response to players than Microsoft. You know, to show they have more faith and good will towards their players. Especially since they give this service for free to PS users.

And of course gamers show this is why we can't have nice things.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Joystiq has a RUMOR on why the shutdown happened.

According to PSX-Scene forum moderator, "chesh," the now six-day-long PlayStation Network outage may be the result of a particularly exploitative custom firmware (CFW) modification for PS3. In a post on Reddit, chesh claims that a CFW known as "Codename: Rebug" had given its users the ability to log into PSN as if they were doing so from a developer console (or "debug unit").

As a result, chesh contends, this same exploit could allow its users to add funds from "dummy" credit card accounts into their PSN wallets, ostensibly giving them the ability to "unlock" (read: steal) certain PlayStation Store content. Joystiq's research into the purported exploit has turned up multiple tutorials detailing the process, which appears alarmingly easy to execute on consoles running the Rebug CFW.

The hack does not allow its users to access the credit card or other personal information of PSN users, chesh adds. Nevertheless, as we reported earlier today, Sony is working to rule out information theft as part of its investigation during the maintenance outage in which the company is also implementing new security measures.

Sony has not yet responded to our request for comment on this story.

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[Makoeyes987]

Dude, that's just so fucking petty and retarded.

Is DLC really that fucking expensive? It's a pain, and some of its unneeded, but resorting to stealing it?

What a bunch of losers. That have now spoiled shit for everyone.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Dude, that's just so fucking petty and retarded.

Is DLC really that fucking expensive? It's a pain, and some of its unneeded, but resorting to stealing it?

What a bunch of losers. That have now spoiled shit for everyone.

Seriously.

If this does turn out to be the reason that it's been down, I have to support Sony for being willing to take down PSN to minimize risk of people ripping off the products that all the various Developers have up on PSN. It sucks, but at the end of the day, it's because people are assholes, and Sony wants their devs to know that they're serious about protecting their content from being stolen.


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[Cookie Monster]

I've been keeping up on the hacking issue for sometime now, before Sony got wind of it.

All the major perpetrators can be found right here:

http://www.nextgenupdate.com/forums/playstation-3-exploits-hacks/

If you look at the first stickied post, you'll find the very same hack you're talking about X. Those guys are notorious, especially on Call of Duty. They're the ones that came out with those lame ass prestige lobbies that allowed you to reach 10th prestige in a matter of seconds.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Yeah, that's fucking balls, right there. If you want to cheat or exploit your own private game, that's perfectly fine. But don't fucking ruin and cheat a multiplayer game and give yourself an unfair advantage amongst others who do it the fair way the game meant to. That's just rude and disrespectful.

So cheatin' and stealin'. Damn.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I reported the website to Sony as soon as I found out the Network went down. They probably know about it already. But, if you guys come across similar sites, you should report them as well.

 

[Tetsujin]

You wouldn't be trying to give yourself a bogus score using some ingenious trick would you? That's just about as low as anyone could possibly stoop! I can't believe you sometimes.

 

[Splintered]

You would think with all the time and effort they put into hacking to get better scores, they could instead, I dunno, practice. And get good.

Or does that require talent?

 

[stiles]

hahaha, wow. i haven't used psn in months and when i decide to finally login apparently the entire network's down. i haven't read up on it, all i know about the incident is what i've read in this thread. all i know is i'm glad i never used my credit card on my ps3. it might result in nothing but shit like this would leave me paranoid anyways.