PlayStation Network Status Update: Third PSN Attack Planned – Sony Defenceless?

By
06 May, 2011 Gaming, Sony Playstation 3 6:27 am

Just when you thought the PlayStation Network would be back up within hours, we have some worrying details to bring you now. It has been reported by a reliable source that hackers are planning a third attack against Sony over the weekend, which could cause Sony to delay bringing PSN back online even further.

The news is according to Cnet, as they have published an ‘exclusive’ report, stating that information was acquired via the hacker’s IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel, revealing that yet another attack is in the pipeline against Sony.

It will apparently take place over the weekend and may reveal user’s credit card information and other personal information such as addresses and full names. Even more worrying, the report also adds that the hackers have admin access to Sony’s servers, suggesting that the company are wide open for another attack.

At least this information has been brought to public knowledge and Sony can now prepare for it if the details are true. However, it doesn’t look good for Sony’s last estimation on the PlayStation Network being back online sometime this week. This has gone on long enough it seems, and now these fresh details have come out – it doesn’t look good.

What are your thoughts on this reported third attack? Do you think Anonymous are connected with it?

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    • Wolf

      The only real victims here is us who enjoy online gaming. What have us gamers done to deserve this?? Why has god forsaken us??

      • AnimeFreak

        Lol! You are funny, but it's true.

    • matt

      no chance!!! their is more chance of capturing bin laden alive than Anonymous twats causing any new damage to the new improved sysyem! so before you publish loads of crap on the net get your story and facts staright! twats!!!

      • Alan Ng

        CNET published this story Matt. We are just keeping gamers informed about this, as the majority are asking for updates.

        • jason

          forget CNET nocomment from sony since sunday morning they are really taking the piss.We would all like an update from sony the silence is deathning.Personally still think we will be talking about this next week instead of doing what we want to{PLAYING GAMES ON PSN} sony my arse

    • wth and…

      w….t…..f………….

      • cracker11

        Exactly

    • Grr

      All I know is my husband is crabby and is going to end up getting an xbox instead

      • Ternell McMillian

        I'M WITH YOUR HUSBAND!

      • Jackenzison

        The same thing happened to xbox in 2007. If he has had his p.s for over two years it has paid for itself and the cost differnece betwwen xboxs online and sonys free online.

    • Athan

      … i gotta tell ya, i'm startin' to think this is all a load just so sony can update their network…

      • clay

        I believe its a ploy so they can charge for the psn. In my opinion the free network was the onlything keeping me from going xbox 100 percent. Im not paying for inferior service, unless they hire george hotz lol.

    • Cyril

      If another attack happens, I'll fking take down the hackers myself. I have 20 years of UNIX hacking experience.

      • ashfoxx

        Good luck. Were all counting on you.

      • nate

        Handle those hackers man!

      • ninjaassassin

        I have 20 years of Ninja Assassinating Experience

      • Sony is awesome

        take down those hackers

      • AvidGirlPlayer

        FCK THEM UP! And be sure to give them a good kick in the a$$ from ol' Amerith

    • Buskin

      This just in. PSN will be down for 2-3 for weeks.

    • jason

      sony keep doing the same thing saying it will be back soon then putting an excuse at the end of thier statement.next thing hey presto no psn.no psn this weekend then come on SONY BONZI

    • Johnson

      Im gonna cry if it doesnt come back by sunday. If it takes another month or two, sorry sony. Im gonna try my best to buy a xbox 360, again. FUCK man.

      • Stone

        To all the trolls saying that they are going to buy a 360 if they don't get the psn back up soon. These people are 360 fanboys posing as upset Sony fanboys. Why on earth would you "try your hardest to buy a 360" when it has a failure rate well over the 75% mark? My 1st generation 60 gig PS3 has yet to break down on me. What's worse, waiting until the PSN is back up or buying a system that's going to inevitably break down on you?

        • freesonycreditreport

          There is an extremely low failure rate on the new 360s, which cost the exact same price as the old ones. They rebuilt a lot of the inside to make it less noisy and not nearly as hot. I admit the old xbox's had serious issues and it was ridiculous, but I never had to cancel my credit card and wait for a new card to resign up for all my automatic services thanks to Microsoft. Now, thanks to Sony, I have.

    • HackerSuckMyPole

      This is a bunch of crap! These hackers really have nothing better to do than mess with a free service? Why not MSN? So Sony did something they didn't approve of? Big deal. Get the hell over it and move on already.

    • laurie

      I wouldn't believe everything Cnet publish to be honest, and with regard to Hackers having access to admin rights, errr I think they are first thing Sony would have altered

    • ruben

      Get the damn network on already! X-box here I come.

      • jason

        now the drugs dont work they just make it worse but i know i will play on psn again because oooh with an xbox id be better of dead

        • jay

          i agree, i'll quit gaming before i go back to 360. worst built products ever!

    • get a grip people.

      you go get an xbox 360 :) and have fun. Oh no somebody has left ps for x360. nobody cares its just a gaming console, how can you all waste your lives worrying about not being able to play online, its pretty sad, go out and play sport, read a book, anything, just stop obsessing about not being able to play online.

      • ruben

        Says the guy reading these comments. Hey genius, its called spare time and the ps3 becoming a waste of hard earned money. So pick up Ur purse and put down Ur computer cause u sound like a girl

      • Nate

        Yet your writing on a site for people who DO care if it comes back up or not and your telling us to get a life. Seriously?

      • Jesse

        I spent 4 years in college getting my degree & playing college baseball just so i can have spare time to play my PS3. Too bad you've got a crappy job where you work 60 hours a week maybe minimum wage & don't have the time to afford a PS3. Really buddy, what are you even doing in this forum anyways. People like you give Americans a bad name. Living on welfare and spending all day making fun of people in random blog postings, you're so cool

    • Sakura

      ill give Sony 1 more week, if its not up im changing console…i cant wait to play.

    • hatchetryda357

      CYRIL…… i will pay you in CASH to get back at the pieces of $h!t that are responsible for hacking the PSN. I cant believe how much yard and house work my wife has made me do to keep busy with my free time, i need online gaming and F%@# buying a xbox…..come on sony just tell us if we can go back online soon or not………..

      • Big Man

        I'm sure they will have us back online but its the not knowing when thats doing my head in, why aren't sony putting updates into the press 77million people deserve to be kept up to date rater than relying on heresay and random blogs

    • desert_eagle_sage

      well mabe i can help… idk how this all started but i cant stand living without black ops… im still sticking with sony…

    • jon

      **sony** has if occured that mabe the hackers are from someone from the inside? from someone who is familiar with the psn?… i mean thats pretty hard…. its not impossible but its hard and i say that cause its not easy trying to hack…. especially something that big…

      • PSN Updater -

        John This I promise you was an outside job no sony employee would do that if they did the would be going to jail….. (Computer Hacking- Federal Crime….

    • Goober

      Well at least hopefull they will get a better server at least for black ops.

    • Von klinkerhoffen

      Can`t stand hackers. Geeky nobodies who need to get out more and get a life. You can imagine them sitting there with their bifocal glasses and slavering at the mouth gigglin like wee girls.

    • lew

      people are saying its xbox who have hacked the system

      • kevin

        why would they its not their problem that there is a ps3 because as you probably know is that microsoft is loaded probably even more than blizzard

      • Rootz

        hhahaha I could see Microsoft doing that on their free time.

      • Darius Fontaine

        This is starting to really smell like competative sabotage!. A third attack? Why this relentless attack on Sony?. Were these hackers paid?, and if so by who? What is the real motive behind this?. I honestly refuse to believe that it involves some group of people with strong principals over what Sony does.

    • Sakura

      and in that you really believe?

    • Archie

      These hackers should be hunted down by the interpol, it seems the californian court is incapable of anything serious. These people are no less than cyber terrorists! Bring them to justice and give them the worst bloody punsihment they deserve. They should be sued for their next 5 generations for bringing inconvenience to over a 100 million online users. None of us could care less for their petty excuses. We the majority of PS3 users don't even want pirated games, if we could afford a $400 console, we can afford a $50 game every 3 or 4 months! Enough is enough already!!! I'm about to platinum all my games playing offline single player and I demand to be connected to PSN now!!!!

    • XLINTELL66

      Hey everybody….this is most certainly NOT true. The FBI is monitoring sony's progress and rest assured any attempt to intrude on sony's system at this point in time would be FATAL to the intruding party. Hackers, for the most part, do not get caught for a reason. And this fodder that is being posted by thisa website is NOT one of them. This is just another failed attempt by certain blog forums for publicity. This certain website also 'claimed' that the psn would be back up last weekend, according to a 'reliable' source. No truth to this accusation. Have a good day.

    • Nick

      omg this is just an excuse to use, i bet you haven even started building the system back online i call this BullS***

    • purple haze

      all speculation!!!!!!!!

    • tj278128

      i hate the network for ps3 now i am goin to switch to an xbox i hate fn' anonymous!!!!!

      • Pacn8r

        I am almost 40 and had Xbox and Wii and they both suck. I have been a fan of Playstation since the beginning. The controllers are better, the games are better and don't forget bluray… Playstation rocks. I hate this situation but I would never trade my Playstation for any other crappy system. And to the FKn Hackers, get a job. Oh ya you geeks would rather hand pleasure each other than get a real Job. Go To Hell Hackers

      • Kiros_Winstone

        I very much doubt Anonymous had anything to do with this attack on Sony.
        While it's true that they do have quarrels with them and stated that they would be dealt with, they wouldn't launch an attack on Sony with the purpose of stealing credit card details of innocent PlayStation users, that's not what they stand for.I'm sure whoever did hack the network knew this, and decided to take advantage of it by smearing there name and leading Sony on the wrong trail.

    • A…z

      Soooo….Lets get "ghotz" put him in jail and see what happens (well not the rape part in jail) but what the hackers will say to that…if anonymous is truly not responsible lets see not ruling them out just yet

    • Sartec

      Heh…All of you here commenting about Sony making excuses, these aren't just excuses. This is real, Most of you are probally little kids that don't know how to do anything but play CoD, don't talk about stuff that you don't know about. These hackers are the same ones that hacked the IRS a while back, they know what they're doing and they won't stop at Sony, they might go to Microsoft, they might go to something even bigger than the IRS, no one knows.

      Stay safe,
      –Sartec–

      • hobbes

        ok and your point is? If I have a serious problem and it is very serious, then I lie to you about it , is that not a bull s#@* excuse? It is not that they are taking a while to fix the issues, but rather that they are knowingly misleading people to think that the psn will be back up soon. They have known for most of this time that it would take a while. I'm probably not quite as fluent in programming as Sony's guys, but even I knew from the get go, that it would take 3-5 weeks minimum for all the programming and restructuring necessary. If you truely believe they are not purposely lying to us then you are only lying to yourself. Corporate moguls are in it for profit without liabilities, they dont mind feeding you bull s@#*&.

    • done done done

      who cares at this point its been to long already! MY piece of shit 360 goes online and i can play black ops! The only thing to waite for now, is to get on psn just to get friend contacts and convince them to get a xbox! when i picture what sonys network looks like i see a time warner commercial that has hundred of bandaids holding ethernet cables together!!!!!!!!!

    • jonathan

      you have got to be kidding me…. I hate the weak… and it apperas that sony is the weak… my thoughts are switching to xbox…. this is so much BS!

    • nerds

      Think of it this way, If the psn wasent down the americans wouldnt of caught bin larden so be grateful

      • nina

        lol thats funny

    • Gabe

      Who ever these damn hackers are they need to be discovered and held accountable for their actions! Vandalizing the PSN is one small aspect of the crime, what I am more concerned about is the information taken from the PSN customer database. Several millions of users' private information could have/has been taken? We have not been told with any level of certainty. But DAMN IT that is OUR information that could be sold for profit or used to purchase unauthorized goods. If the law cant catch these hackers, then it our civil duty to find these deviants and bring them to justice! I know many of you out there feel the same way. Some of you may have the tools, resources, and/or connections to discover the whereabouts of these hackers. We can either do something about these bast@rds or standby and watch them run rampant. My recommendation to you is if you discover something to bring it to your local authorities.

    • stu

      hey for all ps3 fans , think about it , the more people the change to an xbox so fuck , faster online gaming service for us , the reason i picked a ps3 or xbox is because of the controller , i hope sony never change the controller as av played sony from a bairn and now that a work full time and have a family a couldny be bothered learning to play another controller lol, its acutally beneifted me this hack as a maned to acutally get sum trophys for the actaull game story its self , and av changed ma details and cancelled ma bank cards, job done, still is nippy tho , totally agree with every1 on this forum , but its no gonna speed up anything tho lol no matter what we say

    • Adam

      We should all be pissed as hell. PSN is not free. The cost of the network is built into the price of the consol's collective sales, games, downloadable content, advertising, game publisher's, and netflix. PS3 cost more than the xbox or wii, and so do the peripherals. The "free" network is a business counter balance to attract a competitive consumer base. Example: I love GT5. Single player is fine, but the game's lifeblood is primarily online play. Game – about $70 after tax. GT Force Steering Wheel – $160 after tax. New 46" Plasma – 1154 after tax. PS3 (at the time) 700 after tax. Without PSN, a load of expensive paperweights. This goes for any platform wether it be PS3/xbox/PC. 60 a year for xbox isn't buying security (*cough* windows), they just slid it in a little deeper and harder for online play. I'm a banker, nothing is free, we just make it feel that way.

      • Seij007

        ATTN: The PS3 has always been more expensive and there are several reasons other than the "fake free network'. Considering that the PS3 has a more powerful processor, and that it will have a longer console life cycle because developers are becoming smarter and more effective at using it. Consider the graphics of games when any console is launched and the way they look at the end of its life cycle. You bought a more powerful gaming machine. As for your example we are all without the network. It sucks, but if you have a PC or home internet connection I'm sure throughout the time you've subscribed to internet service that over the duration of your life the internet will go down for a cumulative time similar to the time this attack downed the service. (By the way, when your internet goes out it doesn't matter what system you use, you are going to be playing with yourself still)

        And congratulations on being able to being able to afford a system when it is launched. A lot of people tend to not be able to do that. But if you have had a PS3 since launch, how many times have you had PSN down this long? Really in the long run this is a bump in the road.

    • bonk

      almost positive this is not anon, nor were the prior attacks.

      • guest

        wrong, It was. The apology letter to the US house of representatives from sony stated they left a file in their server named :Anonymous" with the words "we are legion" written inside

        • Don

          why would they o that they are activist they are being set up Im sure of it. why not put the heat on anon a well known group?

    • Hitzel

      its not sony's fault at all i just think there to stupid to fix there own network it will be back today hopefully but all we can do is play offline and ejoy it i guess it is rediculous but we have to face it i guess

    • Seij007

      This is insane, the number of people that are willing to jump ship, and go to XBox Live (and FYI it's not free) because a free service was hacked intentionally. Sounds like a bunch of fair weather fans to me.

      While Sony did handle alerting customers of the intrusion, and the cause for the service to be turned off, they did want to investigate and provide as clear of picture to the public that uses the PSN. Along with what the next steps they were going to take. Banks, insurance companies have had worse attacks and had much more data than user name, password, address and possible credit card numbers stolen. They lost SSN, banking history, bank account numbers, and they took longer than 6 days to let the public know.

      Additionally, they may have hid the fact for a few days to see if the hacker tried again and gained more information from any additional attacks. Consider this: they didn't want the hacker to know they were successful. I haven't seen anyone posting online their proud successful attack or mailing an anonymous video tape and sending it to the news like a true terrorist would.

      Yes, we as users have a right to be disappointed with Sony. Our anger and venting should be aimed for the person or persons who did this, and asking ourselves how would you have handled such a situation, tell everyone the first day, and create panic and not be able to answer questions, or disable the service work on a solution and determine the extent of the breach.

      Why not ponder on a reasonable way for Sony to compensate us and make this a more constructive conversation for everyone.

    • Holly Golightly

      can we not just blame Anon' ?, they sound like a bunch of crying biatches anyway (oh waay, sony stopped us ripping them off and loosing millions and millions waay! *cnuts*)

    • billy

      If they do the F.B.I waiting for them to breach and trace them and there loaction they the best gadget to catch them they have the ewest software to track false isp and to locate real isp

    • jason

      alright sony i give in if you get it back up before the weekend i promise all COD ZOMBIE KILLERS THE FOLLOWING 1 I WILL NOT SHOUT ABUSE DOWN MY HEADSET WHEN SOME1 KILLS THE CRAWLER FOR THE 10TH TIME 2I WILL NSA DOWN HEADSET WHEN SOME1 HOGS BOX THEN RUNS OFF AND KILLS LAST ZOMBIE 3I WILL WELCOME THE PERSON WHO REFUSES 2 OPEN DOORS NO MATTER HOW MUCH MORE MONEY THEY HAVE ….BUT IF YOU NICK MY KILLS AS SOON AS WE START BACK UP THEN PREPARE FOR VENGENCE HONESTLY

    • Nez

      There needs to be a new group of hackers to hack the hackers… uhh if that makes sense.

    • Sean

      Enough is enough Sony stop giving us the run around and stop stalling. If psn services are gonna be down for a month just say it. You keep saying everyday that it will be up soon but all I keep hearing is the details of the attack. I could give a s@$t less I just wanna know when the services will resume. So pull your heads out of your asses and give the people a concrete date already I think that's the least we deserve.

    • C,mon Sony

      your taking the jam out of my fuckin doughnut c'mon waited to long now your a fuckin multi-trillionaire company whats the hold up hire people to fix it for you if your have trouble?

    • liquorsto

      This just in PSN Network is terminated until further notice,no set date when the network will be back up if ever,well ps3 owners this is the end of ps3 era,Sony has failed us,look at it this way our on country is not even safe,anything having to do with the internet is not safe even if you have all these virus protection programs still not safe=HACKER( A person or group of individuals that spent ALL of their time trying to steal others peoples money,identity,and eventually their life.This is a WORLD WIDE EPIDEMIC far more worst than AIDS and spreds from computer to computer none stop,the bible says this is the sign of the end of the world)= FACT

    • dirty_dan

      Xbox and hackers can suck my D###!!!

    • dude

      i love psn but got tired of waiting talking there bull shit and went and bought an xbox. i have both systems now and is that so bad. now if one does go down again can just use the other one!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Balthum

      Please im just gonna go out and buy a F~!@#& XBox 360 if this doesn't stop

    • kjmac

      this is bs just tell us when psn will be back online!!!!!!!!

      • kcire

        I Honestly don't believe that they are going to attack Sony again (unless there is some truth that a robber always returns to the scene of the crime)………ONE thing i do know is that making stuff up like this brings lots of hits to a web site.SO BEFORE WE ALL JUMP SHIP (show us some respect)

    • Reco Sanchez

      Definilty will be buying an xbox.

    • Bradley

      Hell im as disappointed as anyone about not having my psn.. its a real soother to beat the crap out of some people on SF4 and MVC3.. but seriously.. people breaking down and getting this angry and wanting to get an xbox this quickly is kind of insane… seriously… i find it a huge inconvenience but its a free network which i have loved and shit happens… im not worried about gameplay.. its inevitable in the near future we'll all have it back and the jonesing will cease… im a lot more upset that my credit card was registered however luckily i had already cancelled it because of a security breach of something else totally unrelated so i was like the what the hell what worse can happen to me :-P neways i thinka s a result of this fiasco sony will have to be way more sensitive to anything like this happening again.. in the end its all for the betterment for us all ;-) and as far as a hacker attack this weekend…. most any website is under a constant onslaught of would be hackers and the real deal… tis a real threat we;re always under.. it didnt just come out of nowhere…

    • wtf!!!!

      omfg!!!!! turn the feffin network on already…ur losing more of ur online gamers everyday…. i guess xbox is top of the list for sure now…. psn shud of been prepared instead of waiting for something to happen… now we all putting up with this s+++!!!! at least give us a specific date and time so we won't have to keep checkin the network and cuz i think thats what is getting on peoples nerves.. date and time would probably be best for every1 now… date n time for for f sakes!!!!!… date n time!!!!…. getting tired of checkin the damn network…

    • freekshow

      The attacks planned are aimed at the Sony website and CEO's of sony. from a source from the IRC, once the PSN is back up and running Anon does plan on attacking sony again but NOT the PSN as they find it counter productive

    • steve 01steve

      annonymous you say you a gamer like the rest of us why dont you just leave the psn alone and give us true gamers a chance to get back on line we all have gripes to bear but youve gone far i just wanna play games give us a break mate
      steve

    • Matt

      what are these hackers trying to accomplish? I'll never understand the immature, malicious mentality that these people possess. Thanks for nothing, losers.

    • Xister

      The worst thing is… among all the millions of affected people, there are lots of sick ones who are bedridden. Gaming might be one of their last joys, this might be the only chance to play with the others. Especially cruel it is for the sick kids. Their days are counted, their joy is almost gone… and now even less left of it. Those hackers don't give a damn about it… They revel in their little trashy glory…. but their spirit will never be able to recover from that dirt.

    • Bob

      If it gave us better security and online experience, Sony should start charging for online play. I'm all in, if that's the case.

    • Shawn5971

      Whent and got an xbox very dissapointed in sony they just need to post date and time and everybody will quit bitching they lost my service. And millions more fuck you Sony you broke my heart

    • dazzdiggy

      I am F##%@ done

      I am buying an XBOX …. sony keep your shitty updates
      i guess thats what u get when you dont pay for online services

    • armonia

      id get an xbox 360, but im poor. sony, hurry up. please. playing phantasy star portable is one of few ways i can easily communicate and have fun.(im deaf and mute :/)

    • hameltoe

      I smell a lawsuit coming. All of us had our private information compromised. Class action baby!!!!!

    • Adam

      I'd stay away from xbox. Albeit this outage has gone far enough, I began reading xbox.com's forums. Apparently is littered with complains of hacking, aimbots, wallhacks, etc. I read their posts extensively, and hacking on their network is widespread on every title online (I was thinking of dumping PS for xbox as well). Again, no one in their right mind would just ditch 1000+ of sony hardware/software for an outage. Besides, 90% of you don't have the money, and if all of you sell your PS, who's going to buy it? lol. So instead of a network down for maintenance, you'll just be paying 60 a year for constantly hacked games. Besides, their controllers suck, and xbox people are… just a little weird. Away from that, Sony really needs to get their sh*t together.

    • Bob Deal

      This is all because those bastards at Sony took away the "Other OS" capability from the PS3. I am actually happy someone has the balls AND ability to hit these assholes where it hurts! Give us back the full operability of the machine and STOP DOWNGRADING YOUR DEVICES! DAMN!!!

    • Nik

      well of course the hackers gained admin acces to Sony's systems.. they hacked them.. But unless users have managed to magically update their details with the network down, or the hackers have a hardline into the network, I don't see how a 3rd attack can happen as scheduled.. even if the network were up by then, the security has been updated and passwords changed – so no new information would be at risk, and since a hacked ps3 was used to gain access the new security requirements set by 3.61 have rendered it unlikely that another immediate attack would occur. I have both consoles and still play both despite the lack of PSN. Ofcourse i'm p####d off about it – but lets not lose sight that the hackers are to blame not sony.. and if anonymous were that intent on proving their inocence they should turn their attention to finding out who did it themselves. As for Sony – if think they'd be much better off in the Polls if they made sure they posted more frequent updates on whats going on. Even if that post said nothing new, at least users wouldn't feel like they're being ignored.

    • PSN Updater

      From iTz A pArTy (Me)
      If you are a playstation 3 user and u have a credit card take all money off of it ASAP The Hackers Have In-FACT Began the attack on sony (PSN Is going to be down for 1hour to 3 months if i were you i would considering getting another console or finding something else to do ….. As Much as i love Sony There Defense Have been proven that they are Weak And there lettin Some Random Hacker group take over there network… Just A little side note over 75,000 Credit Cards Have Been Stolen And THAT IS A FACT

    • XxExTrAmAgZxX

      COME ON JEEZ LEAVE US ALONE!!!!!!!

    • brandin

      theres been a poll online and 40% almost 50%of ps3 players have changed to xbox 360 and im 1 of them xbox is much better

    • http://google orlando

      find and kill those bitces

    • OnePissedOffGamer

      Hey hackers, you can go suck one! Anyone has the ability set up their own minor network and join up with friends! You can't stop us!
      2. Why don't you go after XBox live or something? Why us?
      Oh, and what if these hackers work with XBox live? Has anyone launched an investigation?

    • BelmontLegacy

      Almost sounds like another Holocaust. A PSN Holocaust. I just got a PS3 not too long ago, and I haven't even been able to get on PSN yet. What a way to spend three weeks…. these hackers must be brought to justice.

    • Malestache

      SHAFT!!!!

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