S.O.E hacked again

I play a game on the Sony Online Entertainment network, and tried to log in tonight...it's down. Apparently there has been yet another hack of users data.

http://www.psu.com/SOE-hacked--12,700-credit-card-numbers-and-246-million-accounts-may-have-been-compromised--a011514-p0.php

Looks like it will be down for a while. No raiding tonight

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Fucking hackers.

 

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Is that the same as the Playstation network? There was a major breach and that (at least in Australia) has been shut down for ages and people have been told there creditcard info may have been stolen

 

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Its revenge for what those bastards did to MxO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ABu8GHmx5Q

 

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No..it's not exactly the same network. But owned by the same company. The SOE includes games like Everquest and Vanguard (the game I play.)

 

hahaha I fucking hate SOE

 

It's not just what they did, it's what they didn't do. The game died a death through stagnation, while the storyline might of continued the game was capped to lvl 50 at which point you would be stuck PvPing because that was all that was left.

The game itself needed more development, which in turn would require more funding, unfortunately such an investment was never put forwards which is a shame.

What Sony should have done is something similar to what Microsoft did with a game called Allegiance. They basically handed the game over to the community to run and mod freely because of it being a "Failure". "Free Allegiance" is still going strong to my knowledge even though it's old now.

Of course they could always make a comeback with a new Matrix game (since they would still have the rights too I guess), but that means we'll already know the title before it's even considered.

"Matrix: Resurrection"

 

Vanguard will probably go the same way. It's been since July since we have an update. Fortunately, before all of the devs went away, they introduced of bunch of really hard mobs, that many people are still working on....but people have been leaving in droves. It's a damn shame...it's a much better game than WoW.

 

MMO's are too intensive for most people. You tend to burn out in the first couple of months, or if it's your first MMO you'll likely kick around for year before leaving.

MxO had the problem that you could probably reach the lvl cap in 1 month hard play, that's hardly a money spinner if your lvl cap is reached in such a short time (This is of course implying unhealthy gaming hours to achieve)

There should really be a formula to imply low costs, leveling over a greater time period with less need to be active costantly to generate a revenue without undermining peoples will to pay to play.

(You also have to note that the increase in Iphone usage and facebook is also undermining the old MMO market. Perhaps they just need to change with the times and get your MMO's on the phones)

 

With Vanguard, the level cap was 50..which could be achieved in a month or so of hard-core playing...then it was raised to 55, which took another couple of months to achieve....but that was just the first part of the game. After that you could begin to fight raid mobs to get the better gear. Getting fully raid geared could take a year or more. I've been playing the same toon for 2 and half years, and there are still pieces of gear that I want.

Most of the people left in the game are just like me. Long term players that have such an investment in time in their toons, that they find it hard to give up.

I think in the future, MMO's will follow the D&D online format. Free to play, pay to get more content and better gear.

 

Makes me glad I didn't use my real name and address to register. But a Mr Ivor Biggen at the United Nations is in for a shock.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13288532

Sony's blaming the Anonymous group indirectly for a DDoS attack they were launching in retaliation for taking a "Hacker" to court. However I'm pretty sure the "Hacker" they refer to was the Reverse Engineer that published their PS3 company private key.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12116051

This is the problem with how the news reports the interchangeable term "Hacker", one can be seen an evil black-hat working towards undermining large companies or governments with an immoral perspective (Hollywood depiction of Evil) while the other is just a technically savvy guy that just happens to pull something apart that a company doesn't want pulled apart due to "trade secrets". (Incidentally even with a patent, it only protects against the reproduction of a patented good enmass for sale, to my knowledge anyone can legally make something that is patented for themselves as long as it's not being resold as the inventors or company that owns the patent.)

I really hope any letters sent to various governments in response to such large scale attacks takes that into consideration.

As for who attacked Sony.... Well I don't actually know, but I'm pretty sure this will do how it usually does and end up linking back to various groups that aren't Anonymous related but might well use their tools or just their profile to hide what they are up to. If anything Sony could have petitioned for Anonymous's help, which they would likely have done with the only clause being whatever cause they were initially in dispute with the company over.

 

Me too haha.

 

Yes I'm thinking my next account on the PSN is going to be the queen at Buckingham palace

 

Apparently an update suggest that Anonymous didn't attack Sony, and suggests those that left a "Calling card" (anonymous file and logo) were imposters.

It's funny how it's elevated to actually include a calling card now considering the initial report just implied that a DDoS attack just aided in the actual attack.

This could cause an interesting turn in regards to a Cyberwar campaign, currently Anonymous attempts to hold a moral high ground but if it's proven that smaller groups are utilising their name in vain, then there is a likelihood that we could start seeing some changes in Anonymous's activities, where they actually aid in identifying the perpetrators of such crimes.

While they might not want to do it for Sony, they should remember that anyone that had their credit card information stolen is an innocent even if they personally feel there was "guilt by association", so if they want to bolster their ranks and maintain public support in some respects it's the only way to go.

I guess it depends if they want to prove to be Whitehat's questing for Righteous Indignation, or befouled by the smell of a Blackhat.

Incidentally for any actual Anonymous "Calling cards" I suggest they:

• Take a standard image and apply a Steganographic encoded insert
• The insert should be encoded via a PGP key
• The insert should be a new motto or statement that is not publicly known of outside of the group, it would actually be best to be a HASH of the insert rather than bidirectional cryptology.

This will prove the legitimacy of any attacks arranged by them, or disprove of attacks that others have committed. Steganography on it's own is difficult to "crack" albeit not impossible.

 

I'd have to say that Anon might have a good point that pointing the finger at them, having been in the news quite a bit lately for Wikileaks, Bank website attacks, and HBGary attacks is Sony's method of diverting attention away from their utter failure at securing their network.

They've had no problem claiming responsibility for other attacks, I see no reason why they would distance themselves from this one if they had been involved.

 

Received by email:

May 2, 2011

Dear Valued Sony Online Entertainment Customer:
Our ongoing investigation of illegal intrusions into Sony Online Entertainment systems has discovered that hackers may have obtained personal customer information from SOE systems.

We are today advising you that the personal information you provided us in connection with your SOE account may have been stolen in a cyber-attack. Stolen information includes, to the extent you provided it to us, the following: name, address (city, state, zip, country), email address, gender, birthdate, phone number, login name and hashed password.
Customers outside the United States should be advised that we further discovered evidence that information from an outdated database from 2007 containing approximately 12,700 non-US customer credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes) and about 10,700 direct debit records listing bank account numbers of certain customers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Spain may have also been obtained and we will be notifying each of those customers promptly.

There is no evidence that our main credit card database was compromised. It is in a completely separate and secured environment.
We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company, but on May 1st we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen and we are notifying you as soon as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the attack and as a result, we have:

1. Temporarily turned off all SOE game services;
2. Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
3. Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure 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.

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 number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When SOE™'s services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your Station or SOE game account name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

 

It's still down. And I'm on vacation all week. And my wife bought me two new games.

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LOLOL I love this burn in hell SOE. You ruined PC Gaming right along with Microshit.

 

Microsoft is ten times inferior to Sony Entertainment- Nietzschefan.

 

I wonder. Did people really get so much massive money taken from them litterally? Dont' expect to say they didn't when people have already reported on that with a positive- "Yes".