An e-mail from Sony, & a theory on PSN's recent woes

Hey ATS it's been a while, how ya been?

So about that notwork, er I mean network-the playstation one.

The first few days it was down, I was a bit intrigued when I heard that "Anonymous" was responsible, due to the lawsuit against..what's his name, the guy that jail-broke the PS3's.

so I chalked it up to those wanna-be internet super heroes and not a care was given.

but now it's been what, a week or more? Honestly I don't even use my PS3 anymore so it didnt affect me-that is until until I got an email from Sony Entertainment.

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.

so, what I really am starting this thread for is to ask all of you if you received the same e-mail, if this was sent to every PSN account holder, or just the unfortunates who were hit by this?

oh yeah, the theory part.

So the only reason I bought Portal 2 on ps3 was because I found out they offered it free for download-for PC-from the steam network with purchase.

And I'm wondering if maybe that was picked up on by the people responsible,and exploited, I.E. I got hacked because I just started a steam account on my PC that is linked to the my PSN account. does that make any sense?

Anyway all I'm asking really is
PLEASE let me know if you got this same e-mail form Sony Entertainment. I'd really appreciate it.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/59abd5b41cf0.jpg[/atsimg]

This is the email I got:

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:

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:

• Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
  
• Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
  
• 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.
  

We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

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/province, zip or postal code), 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. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security, tax identification or similar number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant to review your account statements and to monitor your credit or similar types of reports.

We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please contact us at au.playstation.com/psn outage should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment Teams

reply to post by CanYouHandleTheTruth


yup. Same e-mail I got. I just quoted an excerpt. Well I'm going to the bank today to cancel my card. thanks for the post, at least I'm not the only one.

reply to post by HollowJacket


All members, all 77 million, will eventually get that letter, they said all users should by today.

This is what happened. An intrusion was detected on the PSN network and they immediately took it down and started investigating. What they found (and included in the email) was this:

Someone gained access and was able to retrieve your billing information, address, psn id, password, password reset connections, profile data, purchasing history.

Your credit card/ debit card info was stored with encryption, they do not believe it was accessed but can't rule it out.

your pin / security code was never stored and is safe.

This has nothing to do with anon and they haven't claimed responsibility as they are attempting to fight for PS3 users rights, so they say, so gimping and stealing from them isn't the answer.

Where is your theory? lol

I was expecting aliens to be somehow connected to this Playstation Netowrk downtime.

reply to post by HollowJacket


It was anonymous??? Didnt they warn Sony for the implications they forced on people who had modified their systems?

Originally posted by BigBruddah
reply to post by HollowJacket

 

It was anonymous??? Didnt they warn Sony for the implications they forced on people who had modified their systems?

no, it wasn't anonymous, there to busy looking at next week's network blitz.

reply to post by CanYouHandleTheTruth


i got the same message as the post i am replying to.