PSN Down

[Aaron Olive]

Looks like it was, or could have been, something severe if they were quite willing to take it down for so long and have been spending this time rebuilding it with better security.

I was half expecting a new firmware release or something with the time it is taking to come back online, figured they were waiting for something.

Being down for 4 days really shows how bad their network team is, i want to play COD and GT5 NOW! :angry:

[MightyJordan]

Being down for 4 days really shows how bad their network team is

More like it shows how severe the problem is.

[Dermot]

I don't know why there is such hatred toward a group like anonymous, they haven't claimed responsibility and anybody could at this point but haven't, If you ask me it is an internal problem and they have been spending the last few days just trying to find the issue, since their system is vast and like reported, stuck in japan..god knows what has happened.

These hacker groups exploit holes in security and services so corporations are forced into repairing/patching/fixing them so you the user can play safe in the knowledge that sony/corporation have your best interests in the security department which far and few apart these days, deniability, ignorance and straight out closure of services is the norm these days.

Like honestly, in this day and age with facebook, twitter, etc, why did it take a huge corporation like 3 days just to inform it's customers of the issue let alone they are still saying they have no idea what it is or just now tracked it to japan, the home of sony, does these types of posts to their customers really breed some sort of credibility in their services or intentions?

Sony gets a big fat "0" for public relations.

[MightyJordan]

Anonymous have posted a video to PSN users:

[CUBBYJR2005]

guys stop blaming SONY it not there fault blame the guy behind it even though he wont come out and admit it.

[MightyJordan]

guys stop blaming SONY it not there fault blame the guy behind it even though he wont come out and admit it.

Well obviously, if it was the result of hackers, they wouldn't come out and admit it, because they're not idiots, like Geohot.

[Dermot]

guys stop blaming SONY it not there fault blame the guy behind it even though he wont come out and admit it.

That's a lot of speculation, the only thing that we can determine right now is the fact Sony have been aware of the problem since Wednesday and they still haven't fixed it, that's about as much reason to blame sony for incompetence as anything else.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

That's a lot of speculation, the only thing that we can determine right now is the fact Sony have been aware of the problem since Wednesday and they still haven't fixed it, that's about as much reason to blame sony for incompetence as anything else.

You have absolutely no idea what is going on behind the scenes, who is working over time, etc, yet you somehow feel you're knowledgeable enough to brand incompetence around? You do know what incompetence means right?

I'm sorry but if it's been a security threat this severe, there is going to be fallout and consequences matching the nature of the threat. It's clearly not just DDOS attacks any more. There are millions of accounts to protect, developers, content, infrastructure and jobs when something this severe happens. Who in their right mind would half **** an attempt at fixing this? You also have to carry out measures to prevent this happening again, not just reboot a server and turn PSN back on. Lastly there's the little thing of procuring evidence, everything has to be looked over for traces to catch who done this.

Even if Anon weren't directly behind this, they were the catalyst to showing bringing down PSN gets you attention, and gets you mobs of people slating/bashing and hanging Sony out to dry because PSN went down, even although it was Anonymous' fault.

The world gone a bit crazy since the Geohot court case, yes I know everyone wants their free ****ing game for payback for downtime now, but seriously, I would rather see people pulled up for all this self entitled childish nonsense in the sector, gaming, where my main hobby resides. I don't need or want these idiots speaking up for me, I can do that with my wallet, and anyone else can as well unless they're retarded.

Possible SCEE Source Cites Reason For PSN Outage

In the wee hours of this morning a tipster contacted TSA, as well as PSU, with information as to why the PSN has been down for the last few days. Obviously we can?t validate the accuracy of this source, although screen grabs were provided showing his private conversation, apparently with a SCEE employee that he claims to have a close connection with.

This conversation yielded potentially new information, with the tipster stating that there was a ?sustained LOIC attack on the PSN Store? and ?a concentrated attack on PS servers holding account info?. We?re told that Admin Dev accounts were breached and the PSN was shut down by Sony, who are now in the process of restoring backups to new servers.

We?ve seen equally unsupported claims elsewhere that personal details, passwords and log history were breached, as well as the encrypted files storing credit card info. Apparently those card details are still secure because of the way they are encrypted but users? personal info might have been attained during the attack. Obviously this is not confirmed and is based on hearsay but if true it is quite worrying.

Obviously this is all based on the claims of a source whose identity is unclear. As such, we?d advise you to be cautious about the validity. If true though, it could have very serious ramifications.

We would advise against anyone panicking based on these vague claims but there is some cause for concern and we would urge SCE to help set people?s minds at rest by making a more detailed official statement which either confirms or clearly denies the loss of data.

Source: http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/04/24/possible-scee-source-cites-reason-for-psn-outage/

[Dotdot]

You have absolutely no idea what is going on behind the scenes, who is working over time, etc, yet you somehow feel you're knowledgeable enough to brand incompetence around? You do know what incompetence means right?

What and you do?

The guys entitled to an opinion and an angry one at that. Id be mad if it were me, and yes Im fully aware of the work involved to get this working/online.

Point is Sony should of been making its users aware ASAP not with 12-24+ hr delays. Even Blizz at least react within an few hrs when theres disruption and whilst maybe not as large as PSN, 14mill+ accounts is still a decent amount

I can do that with my wallet, and anyone else can as well unless they're retarded.

Woot consumerism!!

[Knightwolf20024]

sounds like psn wont be back for awhile

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

PS BLOG

[MightyJordan]

^ I posted that earlier.

[Japlabot]

guys stop blaming SONY it not there fault blame the guy behind it even though he wont come out and admit it.

It is Sony's fault for not properly securing their systems and it is Sony's fault for not having proper disaster recovery!

[Fubar]

It is Sony's fault for not properly securing their systems and it is Sony's fault for not having proper disaster recovery!

Glad you know what's going on, seriously I do, could you tell us all what happened?

Didn't think so...

[Dermot]

@AudioBoxer

The fact is, if it is a security issue or the fact they needed these extra precautionary actions to make their network more secure and the fact is has happened shows that i was right with the wording, if you can tell me otherwise, please do so, but i stand by my original post.

[Japlabot]

Glad you know what's going on, seriously I do, could you tell us all what happened?

Didn't think so...

Thanks for answering for me. What's going on is that PSN are having an outage which requires Sony to "Rebuild" (their words, not mine) their systems instead of executing their Disaster Recovery plan. Every company running a datacenter has a Disaster Recovery plan (And "Rebuild" is not a type of Disaster Recovery, as the point of DR is to get systems running again without a rebuild). Obviously they were cutting corners and did not have Disaster Recovery plan, or the cut corners in making sure that their Disaster Recovery plan works.

[Vice]

So Anon are either talking out of their arses, or another capable spasticated group has had a go....

What Anon represents is Anonymous people, anyone can call themselves an Anon. And there really is no set leadership of hierarchy there is just some people who are more known than others who when they make manifestos others follow.

Now my point is with this kind of situation someone within the Anonymous group could have done this and just because AnonOps doesn't know about it they say it wasn't them but it's not possible for them to know everything that is done by their 'members' fringe or otherwise.

We will probably never know who was behind the attack. As much as I dislike Sony as a company I think this attack is a bad thing and it really is only hurting the users of the Playstation 3. My friend recently bought Portal 2 for PS3 to play it with me but I play on PC and since the PSN is down he is unable to link his PS3 copy to his PC Steam Account and play with me. Sucks. :(

[Fubar]

Thanks for answering for me. What's going on is that PSN are having an outage which requires Sony to "Rebuild" (their words, not mine) their systems instead of executing their Disaster Recovery plan. Every company running a datacenter has a Disaster Recovery plan (And "Rebuild" is not a type of Disaster Recovery, as the point of DR is to get systems running again without a rebuild). Obviously they were cutting corners and did not have Disaster Recovery plan, or the cut corners in making sure that their Disaster Recovery plan works.

Do you have any proof that they have no such plan? lets face it Rebuild in their words could mean a number of things, you make it sound like it's so easy to prepare for anything and everything yes sony are probably at fault for a number of things but so are the total ****wits that caused this in the first place, putting all the blame on to sony is downright stupid im sorry to say, unless you have 100% proof of whats actually going on at sony regarding the PSN you are doing nothing but speculating about it being ALL Sonys Fault, Until they release all the detailed info which i doubt they will since majority of their userbase are clueless about the technical side of things it is all just your own opinion, so what that its been down for a number of days, it isnt the end of the world.....

[Nick H. Supervisor]

<Disaster Recovery Post>

There's only one problem with your argument. If this was caused by someone breaking in to their system, the disaster recovery plan isn't really an option for anything other than restoring data. Sony will need to go through the whole of their system to find out how someone got in, and how to prevent such a thing happening in the future.

From the sounds of what has happened to the PSN, disaster recovery is only good for restoring data. A rebuild would be needed to secure the system now that the flaw has been found, otherwise the flaw will still be there.

[Japlabot]

Do you have any proof that they have no such plan? lets face it Rebuild in their words could mean a number of things, you make it sound like it's so easy to prepare for anything and everything yes sony are probably at fault for a number of things but so are the total ****wits that caused this in the first place, putting all the blame on to sony is downright stupid im sorry to say, unless you have 100% proof of whats actually going on at sony regarding the PSN you are doing nothing but speculating about it being ALL Sonys Fault, Until they release all the detailed info which i doubt they will since majority of their userbase are clueless about the technical side of things it is all just your own opinion, so what that its been down for a number of days, it isnt the end of the world.....

I am not criticising Sony for being hacked, hackers can get into the most secure of systems, I am criticising Sony for not being adequately prepared to respond to the threat.

To put this into an example:

If my computer gets hacked and everything is deleted and I don't have a working backup, is that the hackers fault that I lost all of my data or is that my fault for not having a working backup?

Same with Sony: If PSN gets <an external intrusion> and <the service is not working> and Sony don't have a working Disaster Recovery plan, is that the <external intruders> fault that they are taking a long time to get their network up and running or is that Sony's fault for not having a working disaster recovery plan?

I don't even use PSN so I am personally not affected by this, but it annoys me that a large company is taking shortcuts by not making sure that their DR plan is actually working. If their DR plan was working then they wouldn't have any problem bringing the systems back up!

Edit: Clarified the example for Fubar

There's only one problem with your argument. If this was caused by someone breaking in to their system, the disaster recovery plan isn't really an option for anything other than restoring data. Sony will need to go through the whole of their system to find out how someone got in, and how to prevent such a thing happening in the future.

From the sounds of what has happened to the PSN, disaster recovery is only good for restoring data. A rebuild would be needed to secure the system now that the flaw has been found, otherwise the flaw will still be there.

Well have they taking PSN down for a rebuild or have they taken PSN down for a security audit? Two very different things. A security audit is completely understandable, but the security hole(s) found in the security audit should not involve rebuilding the entire network (and if it does, then Sony have bigger questions to answer), it should involve rolling out patches to affected systems after Disaster Recovery.

Edited April 24, 2011 by Simon-

[Fubar]

I am not criticising Sony for being hacked, hackers can get into the most secure of systems, I am criticising Sony for not being adequately prepared to respond to the threat.

To put this into an example:

If my computer gets hacked and everything is deleted and I don't have a working backup, is that the hackers fault that I lost all of my data or is that my fault for not having a working backup?

Same with Sony: If PSN gets hacked and everything is deleted and Sony don't have a working Disaster Recovery plan, is that the hackers fault that they are taking a long time to get their network up and running or is that Sony's fault for not having a working disaster recovery plan?

I don't even use PSN so I am personally not affected by this, but it annoys me that a large company is taking shortcuts by not making sure that their DR plan is actually working. If their DR plan was working then they wouldn't have any problem bringing the systems back up!

You Do NOT know if everything was deleted again you are simply speculating that everything has been deleted because of the word Rebuild which again can mean any number of things....

[splur]

It is Sony's fault for not properly securing their systems and it is Sony's fault for not having proper disaster recovery!

People make mistakes, people make server and security infrastructures, people exploit those mistakes.

Now they're securing their systems properly, and you're complaining that they're trying to do it right? Disaster recovery would just mean bringing back up their old systems with the same vulnerabilities, Sony would actually be stupid to do something like that.

[helios01]

People make mistakes, people make server and security infrastructures, people exploit those mistakes.

Now they're securing their systems properly, and you're complaining that they're trying to do it right? Disaster recovery would just mean bringing back up their old systems with the same vulnerabilities, Sony would actually be stupid to do something like that.

Having proper back up would mean restoring the system and closing whatever hole caused this in the first place. Having to start from scratch is terrible design from whatever company.

[The Teej]

I've always taken the word rebuild in this context to mean rebuilding the security infrastructure.

[SiCKX]

DON'T take this as fact, just sharing. (if not already posted)

Seems someone wiped the psn backups

and did an rm rf on the servers, bye bye psn.

Expect a roll back for all trophies and such for a good period of time.

http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32756

[Miuku.]

DON'T take this as fact, just sharing. (if not already posted)

Seems like Microsoft is harbouring aliens. Prepare to be assimilated and probed in various orifices in the next 48h.

You heard it here first.