PlayStation Network under fresh attack from Hackers! Sony quick to respond
Sony have confirmed that the PlayStation Network was on the receiving end of a fresh wave of attacks, as hackers attempted to gain unauthorised access to a number of PlayStation Network’s user accounts.
According to Sony, the attacks were not as coordinated or as large in scale as compared to the previous attacks which left the company crippled for a considerable amount of time.
News of the attack broke when Philip Reitinger, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer, released a statement on the European PlayStation Blog.
Apparently, the hacker or group of hackers, it is not confirmed at this point how many people were behind the attack, attempted to gain access to a number of PlayStation Network accounts by spamming the log-in page with large number of Sign-in IDs and an
even larger number of passwords.
The statement itself described the attack as hackers using “a massive set of sign-in Ids and passwords against our (Sony’s) network database”.
The high number of failed sign-in attempts alerted the company who have since then “taken steps to mitigate the activity.
PlayStation Network accounts were not the only focus of the attacks as Sony Online Entertainment accounts were also under threat, with a large number of failed sign-ins raising alarm bells over there as well.
In total Sony estimate that around 93,000 accounts may have been compromised, “Less than one tenth of one percent of our PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected”, read the statement, before continuing, “There were approximately 93,000 accounts globally
(PSN/SEN: 60,000 accounts; SOE: 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in Ids and passwords.”
As for Sony’s plan to ensure the right users could recover and access their accounts the statement explained that the affected accounts had been locked and that Sony “are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates
as we (Sony) have them.”
Sony did have some good news and explained that the user’s credit cards and all the information associated with it had not been compromised and was safe. They also explained that they would assist all those users who had “unauthorised purchases” made and
that refunds would be provided.
It seems Sony have learnt their lessons from the previous attacks, which resulted in the PlayStation Network being taken off-line for over three weeks; a move which cost Sony more than a $100-million.
All those users who have been affected by the latest round of attacks will receive an email from Sony which will allow them to reset their passwords and safely recover their accounts.
The company is also urging users to make their new passwords as random and hard-to-guess as possible.
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