Sony's PSN Attacked Again! 93,000 Accounts Compromised!

[GameFarnsworth940]

Honestly, Tuesday can't come any faster, since I can FINALLY use these codes of mine. Hopefully the wait will be worth it.

[Detective Shadzter]

Posted on 20 May by Chris Weatherhead – Senior Product Manager, SCEE

Welcome Back To Killzone 3 With A Double XP Weekend!

Countries: AE, AU, GB, IE, NZ

To celebrate the return of the PlayStation Network and welcome you back to Killzone 3‘s online battlefield, we’ve got a Double XP Weekend lined up! Starting this Friday, May 20 at 17:00 PM UK time, and lasting until Monday, May 23 at 10:00 AM UK time, all XP you earn in Killzone 3‘s multiplayer matches will be doubled.

The upcoming Double XP Weekend isn’t the only Killzone-related goodie in the pipeline. As you may know, Sony has revealed that Killzone: Liberation is part of its Welcome Back Program for PSN members, meaning you’ll be able to download the critically acclaimed PlayStation Portable shooter absolutely free of charge. And there’s even more… But we’ll announce that at a later date.

So stay tuned to Killzone.com, and remember to brush up your Killzone 3 multiplayer skills. This weekend, you’ll have a chance to catch up on 3 weeks’ worth of rank progression!

P.S.: During the Double XP Weekend, the Score Screen will display the message “Fast Starter Bonus” instead of “Bonus Points” – this is a string error that will be fixed in future Bonus XP events.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/20/welcome-back-to-killzone-3-with-a-double-xp-weekend/

[Badnik Mechanic]

Killzone 3 double XP

Awwww why do I not own any of these games

Side note: For those who are getting Wipeout and want to take part in our big super fantastic race to get trophies and have a bit of community fun. Here is what you need to know.

We need 8 people to join. And everybody MUST use a campaign skin for the race. To get a campaign skin you need to unlock them in campaign mode... duh...

When the race starts everybody must finish the race (position doesn't matter) trophy will pop at the end.

There is another one that we could try for... but we need 12 people in total.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Hogfather

[Detective Shadzter]

I'll have to have a play on Wipeout HD tomorrow and see if I can unlock some campaign skins then.

VidZone Update: We Have So Much To Welcome You Back!!

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/20/vidzone-update-we-have-so-much-to-welcome-you-back/

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'll have to have a play on Wipeout HD tomorrow and see if I can unlock some campaign skins then.

VidZone Update: We Have So Much To Welcome You Back!!

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/20/vidzone-update-we-have-so-much-to-welcome-you-back/

Heh, I'm yet to get it yet, waiting for the rewards thing to go live.

VidZone is nice if you use it I guess. Oh and black opps is also having a double XP event for PS3 users. This should be good considering a lot of the 'hard core' COD players have aparently traded in their systems XD

[PaddyFancy]

Awwww why do I not own any of these games

Side note: For those who are getting Wipeout and want to take part in our big super fantastic race to get trophies and have a bit of community fun. Here is what you need to know.

We need 8 people to join. And everybody MUST use a campaign skin for the race. To get a campaign skin you need to unlock them in campaign mode... duh...

When the race starts everybody must finish the race (position doesn't matter) trophy will pop at the end.

There is another one that we could try for... but we need 12 people in total.

I'll be ready.

[Dobkeratops]

I'll be ready.

If memory serves well, the campaign skin unlocks after beating the campaign (getting a medal for each stage will do, regardless of the kind of medal). So we might have to wait a few days until new players can tackle the Phantom challenges.

I'll use the time to rework my skills in the Fury expansion so I don't perform embarrassingly bad :|

[Badnik Mechanic]

Heres an interesting update.

Mortal Kombat is waving online pass

Due to the Playstation Store being down, Mortal Kombat devs are allowing anyone with any copy of the game to play it online. Meaning even if you have a second hand copy, you can play the game online for this weekend.

[Silencer226]

I'll join in the race, I suck at racing games but hell, I'll be the honorary noob for the race .

[Dr Jackstraw]

infamous and Wipeout shall be mine

[Phos]

All these games are Sony published. There's no real cost here for them, only opportunity cost, which doesn't really matter because all of these games are pretty old and probably wouldn't sell much more anyway.

I have Wipeout HD, I can get Fury with this? I usually find Wipeout HD pretty frustrating, even in comparison to Wipeout 3.

[Agent York]

All these games are Sony published. There's no real cost here for them, only opportunity cost, which doesn't really matter because all of these games are pretty old and probably wouldn't sell much more anyway.

Not exactly true. I know I'm being a prudent for the technical, but Dead Nation released in November (December in Europe) last year, which is exactly 6 months ago (5 for Europe), which is in no way pretty old. Their selection does include some older titles, but I know for a fact Dead Nation is only half a year old.

[Cola]

I'm getting inFAMOUS and Wipeout HD, but I'm also getting the other 2, since I have my backup PSN. And I already have LBP1. I'm so lucky.

[Thrippa]

Got two phishes in the last two days, one rather cleverly offering me the choice between clicking 'here' to allow a national chain of tire stores to 'continue' to send me emails (because of our business, relationship) or clicking the link at the bottom of the page to unsubscribe from their list. Since I haven't HAD a business relationship with said store in 10 years - which means if they had an email addy it would be my old one, not my current one - I opted to click 'Delete email' followed by 'Empty trash'. The other one may not have been PSN related, since it mentioned a friend by name, but it purported to come from Facebook, claiming said friend had posted a message on my wall. Since friend didn't sound like a gushy teenager even when she WAS a teenager and does know how to spell, I deleted that one too. There was , of course, no message on my wall when I went round to Facebook the proper way. Since I'd only once ever gotten a phisher before I'm not impressed.

Watch your mailboxes, folks, and don't click anything you aren't certain of.

As far as my PS3 goes, I've updated, changed my password, and will probably get LBP to see what all the fuss is about. Not sure about the second game; there's really not a lot of the Sony library that interests me - I use it as a Bluray player far more than a game player.

[Detective Shadzter]

PSN security breach to cost Sony £106 million

By James Orry - 23/05/2011 - 12:34pm GMT

A further £129 million as a result of the devastating Japan earthquake in March.

The 25 day PlayStation Network outage as a result of a hack on the service will cost Sony approximately £106 million in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, the platform holder has said.

"Based on information currently available to Sony, our currently known costs associated with the unauthorised network access are estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012," Sony said in a statement today.

The losses for the current fiscal year come in addition to costs associated with the March earthquake in Japan, said to have reduced operating income for the year ended March 31, 2011 by some £129 million.

"During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, Sony expects to record charges of approximately 12 billion yen, consisting principally of idle facility costs at manufacturing sites and an incremental provision for life insurance policy reserves," Sony said.

The earthquake is also estimated to have resulted in a 5 billion yen impact from net margin loss as a result in decreased sales.

http://www.videogamer.com/news/psn_security_breach_to_cost_sony_106_million.html

Woah! That's a lot of money.

[Eternal EX]

I read that on another site. I think the one I read said something about $20million-100million. Either way, that's a damn lot of money.

[Eternal EX]

1st Sorry for the double post but.....this might be worth showing.

You know the drill by now: Hackers have once again compromised the security of a Sony-owned company, this time the Japanese internet provider, So-net.

If there's a silver lining to this newest hack it's that the damage seems to be minor. The perpetrator(s) breached So-net's customer rewards website, making off with $1,225 worth of gift points from 128 of the internet provider's users. 90 So-net email accounts were also compromised, though the company says that no personal information was viewed by those responsible. The accounts were reportedly compromised by a brute force attempt to guess login information; So-net stated it was tipped off when a single IP address tried to log on to the site 10,000 times.

A spokesman for So-net says that the company believes the attack is probably not related to its parent company's recent PSN woes, but even if this wasn't the work of irate hackers, it's another security flaw that Sony will need to put under the microscope.

[Scar]

Its not a security flaw. The hackers had to use Brute Force assault, which means that they were using high encryption security. If they didn't need to brute force their way in, then its a security flaw. Only thing they need to so now is increase the level of encryption.

Somebody who knows more about this should explain it properly.

[LunarEdge]

Apparently since the store is down you can play MK online without the pass since they can't redeem the code. Kind of nice of them.

[Detective Shadzter]

PSP System Software Update – 6.39

+ Posted by Eric Lempel // VP, Sony Network Entertainment

Hi everyone. A new PSP system software update, v6.39, will be released soon. With this update, users who need to change their PlayStation Network password will be guided through the process. Also, system software stability during use of some features will be improved.

[Carbo]

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/24/playstation-network-maintenance-later-today/

PlayStation Network will undergo routine maintenance today, between 16:00 BST and 00:00 BST. If you wish to play online during the maintenance, please ensure you sign in to PSN before 16:00.

The latest information I have on PlayStation Store is that we are aiming to have it live by the end of May. Contrary to popular rumours, it will not be reopening tomorrow but we will let you know here as soon as the date is confirmed.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by this essential maintenance.

God dammit.

[Detective Shadzter]

Glad to hear official word of a rough idea of when we'll be getting the PS Store back. Sucks there's more downtime today, but I guess it's in preparation for the store and more polish.

[Yong]

Popular rumors? I thought Sony themselves said it would be back today.

[GameFarnsworth940]

Okay, this is getting really old now. They should have had it ready when they said so themselves. The store's been down for almost a month, how much more maintenance could it possibly need?

[Detective Shadzter]

Okay, this is getting really old now. They should have had it ready when they said so themselves. The store's been down for almost a month, how much more maintenance could it possibly need?

To be fair they never made a public official statement giving a date for when the PS Store was going to return. It was just a rumoured e-mail going around to their developers.