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16 May 2011 10:49

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Tech: Will Japan allow the PlayStation Network to relaunch in its country?

  • NO Japan says that the security issues are unresolved source
  • » What’s the big problem? Without breaking into major details, Japanese Ministry of Economy official Kazushige Nobutani puts it like so: “As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference.” So, in other words, Sony’s not proving they’ve actually fixed anything to Japan yet. As Sony is famously based in Japan, this is another pretty embarrassing turn of events.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 May 2011 21:52

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U.S.: Sony PlayStation Network’s return a pretty bumpy one

  • great After weeks of downtime, Sony got their PlayStation Network online for the first time in nearly a month — a month full of hacks, reports of credit card fraud and apologies that followed. There was much rejoicing in the gaming world.
  • troubling WIthin minutes of its return, the system went down. “Please bear with us as we continue working on #PSN restoration. We are experiencing extremely heavy traffic,” a tweet from Sony said. It’s back up, but for how long? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 May 2011 11:00

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Tech: What Sony should learn from this PlayStation Network mess

  • In the future, a blowback in the realm of cybersecurity might be known as the Sony Effect.
  • Bloomberg’s Michael Riley and Ashlee Vance • In a piece called “The Company that Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Oh God, let’s hope it’s called “The Sony Effect,” because maybe it’ll remind other companies why not to actively antagonize their hacking-focused users. In Sony’s case, they were a combination of litigious (going after two well-known hobbyist hackers and threatening many others) and incompetent (they apparently ignore security researchers who find flaws and left their network wide open to an attack). The end result is that a company that needed to learn a lesson about getting hackers on their side learned a very expensive one — one that’s shut down their PlayStation Network for nearly a month now. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 May 2011 19:56

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Tech: Sony’s PlayStation Network still down, will remain down for a bit

  • 04/20 The date that Sony’s popular PlayStation Network went down after a reported data breach — one which the company was initially mum about.
  • 05/08 The date it was supposed to go back up — over a week after the company revealed that users’ financial data was likely stolen.
  • ????? The date it’ll actually go up; the company promises it’ll be by the end of May, but we see how they are about keeping dates. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 00:46

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Tech: Sony gaming site hacked: Stop us if you’ve heard this one before

  • 24.5M number of Sony Online Entertainment users possibly affected by ANOTHER hack job
  • 20k number of credit card numbers that could’ve been exposed to evil hackers
  • off the status of the network, which means that Sony has TWO online gaming networks offline source
  • » Somebody has a security problem: While Sony Online Entertainment isn’t the juggernaut that the PlayStation Network is (and Sony says the financial data they possibly stole was old), it nonetheless makes the company look incredibly bad. This hack, by the way, happened roughly two weeks ago, around the same time as the PSN hack. Who wants to bet that they got hacked because of the way they handled the Geohot mess? Raise your hand. (via @The_CopyEditor)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 May 2011 16:04

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Biz: PlayStation Network breach could cost credit card firms millions

  • $1.5B the amount the PlayStation Network data breach could cost Sony, according to analysts
  • $300M the amount Sony’s data breach could cost credit card firms if consumers replace their cards
  • $3-$5 the amount it would cost card companies to replace a card affected by the breach source
  • » A big number, but small potatoes: The credit card industry makes a lot of money each year, and a $300 million charge, while not insignificant, is a drop in the bucket. In 2010, banks that distributed Visa and MasterCard cards — excluding American Express and Discover — made $2.12 billion in after-tax profit. So even if the potential cost is high, they could handle it.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Apr 2011 01:24

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Tech: Security experts: Hackers tried to sell credit card database to Sony

  • 2.2 million the number of stolen credit card numbers security researchers say the PlayStation Network hackers made off with — based on conversations in underground forums
  • $100,000 the amount they’re looking to make off their bounty — which they even attempted to SELL BACK to Sony, though they reportedly ignored this naked attempt at ransom source
  • » Sony denies the claim: “To my knowledge there is no truth to the report that Sony was offered an opportunity to purchase the list,” said top Sony communications guy Patrick Seybold. Consultants for Trend Micro and iSEC Partners, along with other researchers who keep a close eye on these forums, suggest otherwise. So, who’s right? Hopefully it’s Sony.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

23 Apr 2010 15:00

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Tech: Blippy folks on credit card leak: No, really, it’s not that bad, guys

  • While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for the 4 people who were affected (to whom we apologize and are contacting), and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks at first glance.
  • A message from Blippy • Attempting to do damage control after it turned out some credit card numbers leaked. They claim just four cards were exposed through a Google search that looked fairly scary and got spread just about everywhere. The company better hope that’s the case – it just went through a venture capital round and doesn’t need this level of controversy right now. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Aug 2009 22:13

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Biz, Tech: Albert Gonzalez probably has your credit card number

  • 130 million numbers were stolen by him and two Russians source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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