PSN outage seems to be a serious one... [UPDATED 05/01]

News | Thursday April 21, 2011 by Milouse | 11727 reads |

Following a chaotic week, the PlayStation Network is officially down this thursday. Sony took its time to state about these problem, quite discreetly. But the poll done today on mygranturismo.net shows wide concern.

Earlier today, after several days with serious sign in issue with PSN, i wanted to know more about the scope of the problem. I then put a flash poll one the top of every database page seen by connected website users. The aim of this placement was to remove bias where people answer a poll on a dedicated page (where they land when they're likely to have the problem). A time of writing, to the question "Did you experience problems with PlayStation Network connection during last week?", you've been 90 % to answer Yes (45 % "sometimes", 45 % "often").

Currently, Sony doesn't give a time for PSN recovery, but still continue to promote new content on PSN as if everything would be fine.

UPDATE 2011/04/23:

Sony European Blog manager posted this message this morning: "An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share."

UPDATE 2011/04/24:

Sony US and European Blog managers posted this additional information this morning: "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security. We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. "

UPDATE 2011/04/26:

Sony today quote :"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."

UPDATE 2011/05/01:

Sony to offer free content to apologize, with “Welcome Back" program, starting this week.

"Central components of the “Welcome Back” program will include:

Each territory will be offering selected PlayStation entertainment content for free download. Specific details of this content will be announced in each region soon.
All existing PlayStation Network customers will be provided with 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus premium service. Current members of PlayStation Plus will receive 30 days free service.
Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity subscribers (in countries where the service is available) will receive 30 days free service.

Additional “Welcome Back” entertainment and service offerings will be rolled out over the coming weeks as the company returns the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services to the quality standard users have grown to enjoy and strive to exceed those exceptions."

message #66 | Friday May 27, 2011 | Cue

| Report

Moderator: Indeed. Thanks.

Hi Milouse. Love the website, it has become an indispensible tool to me. Just wanted to point out that there is a grammar error in the English verion of the garage page
own 361 models in his mygranturismo.net garage.
should read
owns 361 models in his mygranturismo.net garage.

message #65 | Monday May 23, 2011 | Milouse

@captainskyhawk, indeed. Lv 5 is now 05 in the items list :-)

message #64 | Monday May 23, 2011 | captainskyhawk

Am i being too anal or should the level 5 ticket be 05 so it appears in the list before 09.

message #63 | Monday May 23, 2011 | captainskyhawk

I have a 'Chrome orange' and a 'Chrome orange metallic'.

message #62 | Sunday May 22, 2011 | Milouse

@andyturneruk, the ticket list has been designed for trading, not temporary ticket (which exist for every gift car, not only the X2010 LV35)

message #61 | Saturday May 21, 2011 | andyturneruk

Hey Milouse, on the Special Tickets list, maybe add the L35 Seb Vettel X1 prize car, since it is an achievement for reaching L35 in B-Spec...? I know you cannot gift or trade it, but still...?

message #60 | Friday May 20, 2011 | Milouse

@veyron1k1, i've corrected the bug (caused by the tooltip), thanks for repoting bug.
Chrome Orange paints dosen't have the same name, do they? Unless i'm wrong (i'm not a paint specialist), the one on the Items page is the one that the name match. ;-)

message #59 | Thursday May 19, 2011 | veyron1k1

Items (Rare Paint) don't work correctly with Chrome 11. Selecting a rare paint (switch from 0 to 1) doesn't instantly show, you have to reload page. Adding another one or deselecting one works perfectly.
And there are 2 different (Met) Chrome Orange, do you mean the lighter or the darker one? ;-)

message #58 | Sunday May 01, 2011 | andyturneruk

@ Messages 55&56... I use FF 4.01 (Mac) with no problems storing passwords for this site.

message #57 | Sunday May 01, 2011 | adellanotte

Some PlayStation Network And Qriocity Services To Be Available This Week
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/01/some-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services-to-be-available-this-week/

message #56 | Friday April 29, 2011 | Milouse

I don't know why FF doesn't save login/password correctly for mygranturismo.net, as it works on other browsers and even on FF on my local version of the site.
Edit: After a page reload (F5) it appears that FF auto-filled login/pwd field ;-)

message #55 | Friday April 29, 2011 | batera99

Milouse, I have both IE and Firefox set to store passwords, but it doesn't work on every site. All financial sites I use (banks, credit cards, loans) and the majority of the online stores (Amazon for example) only allow saving your ID, but the password needs to be manually entered each time you login. Even here on your site, strangely, IE saves both ID and password, but Firefox doesn't save anything!

message #54 | Friday April 29, 2011 | Milouse

@finstersnake, this is a huge work.
@Batera99, you don't need to search through the password files with every day sites, because you can allow your browser to store them. The use of a file/program is for long term use (like using an other computer, backup) and for a few sensitive password that can't be stored in browser - minus the sensitive one you often use and keep in your own human memory (and it can store lots of over time ;-) )

message #53 | Friday April 29, 2011 | finstersnake

@Milouse, no lucky it's not quite that bad ;), although i was hoping for the Jag XJR-9 Race Car.
Not sure where to put this but I think it may be a good idea to put what the default tyres a car comes with when bought\prize received on each cars page, maybe of help when trying to find a car that makes it easier to win the B-Spec races?
Obviously just an idea, wouldn't know how much work it would be to implement if others thought it was a good one too

message #52 | Friday April 29, 2011 | batera99

Milouse, I understand the benefit for security sake, but on a daily basis, it becomes impractical to have to open and search a file to find each of your different passwords before you access a site. Nowadays we're handling almost a hundred sites each for e-mail (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo plus others), credit card (I currently have 15 active accounts as they include store credit cards....you get once for the initial discount they offer when you apply, then never use it again...I know, I need to cancel them), mortage, loans, online stores (Amazon, eBay, and countless others), newspaper delivery, sites and blogs you subscribe to (such as this one). The list just goes on and on.

message #51 | Friday April 29, 2011 | Milouse

@finstersnake, if you're from 1967, that's baaaaaaaad news :-p

message #50 | Friday April 29, 2011 | finstersnake

I'm gutted as its my birthday during the downtime so i'm going to miss out on my birthday car

message #49 | Friday April 29, 2011 | Milouse

Indeed, using same password for everything is a very bad idea. For similar reason, using just a common word as password is also a bad idea : if someone find a basicaly hashed bank of passwords, it could find clear passwords of this kind by comparing them to a hashed database of common word, because even if hash can't be reverse, same word always generates same hash. Most non-sensitive password (like the one you use for mygranturismo.net which does not keep sensitive data) can be stored in the browser itself for short and middle-term use (with autocompletion feature), and all passwords can be stored in a dedicated program, like Keepass : one complex master password gives access to a light encrypted passwords container file that you can backup and copy to another computer, and that is easy to browse in thanks to its built-in instant search feature (and random password generator).

message #48 | Friday April 29, 2011 | adellanotte

My Password is ******** for those who may be interested on. It's so sad…

message #47 | Thursday April 28, 2011 | batera99

Very interesting article: PlayStation network hack: Who did it?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/04/28/playstation.hack.wired/index.html?hpt=T2
One of the most important statements: "The passwords (which Sony evidently didn't bother to hash) could be a gold mine, because people have a tendency to use the same password everywhere; you can bet a big chunk of those 77 million PlayStation Network passwords will unlock everything from Facebook accounts to online banking."
That's me...using the same ID and password everywhere. Here we go, login in on 50 different services to update passwords!!

message #46 | Thursday April 28, 2011 | adellanotte

Sony expects to re-open PSN between May 2th to 8th.

message #45 | Wednesday April 27, 2011 | batera99

More on CNN: Gamers fuming over PlayStation hack
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/04/27/sony.playstation.hack.reaction/index.html?hpt=T2
It seems our opinions here are shared in the multitude: "...This update is about 6 days LATE..."

message #44 | Wednesday April 27, 2011 | captainskyhawk

I've cancelled my card just in case.

message #43 | Wednesday April 27, 2011 | batera99

Wow, did they read my post here and took action? That's exactly what I described my credit card companies wrote us a couple of weeks ago. But again, as I stated before, they sent us messages the day after the incident......not the week after!

message #42 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | adellanotte

Sony is advicing their costumers to have an eye on his credit card statements. Our personal data seems to be threatened.

message #41 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | adellanotte

Important information
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/04/26/psnqriocity-service-update/

message #40 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | captainskyhawk

I also have 59 golds on my licence and cannot get the second slalom. I have tried it so many times I now hate it....

message #39 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | Milouse

I've got hard time on slalom too, and found it easier with a follow cam instead of the cockpit view i usually drive with.

message #38 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | adellanotte

To batera: slalom is much easier than it looks like. My advice: always have some gas, to have the car tightly controlled. Dont look at the next pair of cones but at those ones more on the horizon. Get velocity progressively and steer as much smooth as you can. Start not trying to get the gold medal. Hope it helps. .)

message #37 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | batera99

@odog421, is the Netflix service affected? I'm not a subscriber but was considering it. Do you have to be logged on PSN to use it? Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought it only required an internet connection and you could watch films not only on the PS3, but on any type of browser. Please let me know.

message #36 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | odog421

how can they rob me for my money i paid for netflix i cant get an answer from sony bunch of BS they better give me some credits or something

message #35 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | batera99

Well, I took the time to improve my standings on the Licenses: 59 gold and 1 bronze!!! I hate the slalom on IB-3!!!

message #34 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | Milouse

It would be disapointing to learn that Sony shut PSN down for a "free DLC" breach, because that would mean they were still ignoring connection issues their legitimate users had since a few days before the outage.

message #33 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | Milouse

Portal 2 has a coop mode you can play online, but is not really online oriented. Players will have to delay their Coop session, but I don't think Valve will suffer PSN issue much. The PS3 version has, by the way, a code to also download and play the game on Steam (PC/Mac), which is up and running ;-)

message #32 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | batera99

...and with no meaningful announcements from Sony, rumors abound:
'Rebug' custom firmware enabled 'free' PSN downloads, forced Sony's network shutdown
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/25/rumor-rebug-custom-firmware-enabled-free-psn-downloads-for/

message #31 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | adellanotte

Portal 2 Team must be very disppointed with this. I work in the adv industry and cannot imagine how serious can it become when such a big world-wide release smashes itself against other's mistakes. But if you go to the Portal 2 website, nothing's said about the outage nor at GT5 site. I think, in tcorporate terms they should have put some disclaimer, but they haven't.

message #30 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | batera99

@Milouse, you're right, you wrote "communication" dept. Thanks for correcting me, and I agree with you.
@adellanotte, I'm with you. Being in the corporate world myself, I understand we avoid sharing problems in the media and try to be as vague as possible...but when you host an online store and charge for services to hundreds of thousands of users, I feel the public deserves a bit more information than they've been sharing.
My son (Mac) and I (PS3) purchased Portal 2. He's playing on his Mac and enjoying it online with friends....I'm watching they have fun! ;-)

message #29 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | adellanotte

That's what I was talikng about in my lower post. Not only bank but personal data (wich, as far as I know is not deleted) may have been compromised. I know rumors always are not good, and it could sound something conspiranoic but when as SONY communication policy has become so opaque there has to be at least a reason to worry about.

message #28 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | captainskyhawk

I read in The Sun today that Sony are currently investigating whether or not personal data has been comprimised. I dont know how true this is but it is certainly worrying.

message #27 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | adellanotte

Moderator: I've turned your full copied/pasted article to selected quotes (to be respectfull of original writer/website)

I have found this article published today in Eurogamer.net.
I think it puts on the table some thoughts that could be interesting.
"The PlayStation Network outage currently preventing PlayStation 3 owners from gaming online has entered its seventh day."
[...]
"Current speculation suggests Sony turned its system off to thwart hackers who had found a way to steal content using faked credit card numbers."
[...]
"Hacker group Anonymous has denied responsibility."
Full article on www.eurogamer.net

message #26 | Tuesday April 26, 2011 | Milouse

@batera99, i did not mention Network, but "communication" departements, where they manage public relations. ;-)

message #25 | Monday April 25, 2011 | batera99

CNN reported on this issue:
Gamers frustrated as Sony PlayStation outage continues
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/04/22/sony.playstation.outage/index.html?hpt=Sbin

message #24 | Monday April 25, 2011 | batera99

Milouse, I don't believe their network was designed for something else and that caused them to be caught off guard. They should have a robust system as they handle credit card transactions. Their network has to be PCI compliant so they can work with VISA, MC and others. I feel that like a lot of big names (even here in the US Govt.), some hacker had to go in first for them to see the holes in their network. As adellanotte mentioned below, a lot of people subscribe to their premium services and are left with no access for several days now. Also big games are being released for sale (Portal 2 for example) and users can't play online. I'm sure this will cost them money over time. No one is infallible. I recently received e-mails from 3 or 4 credit card providers telling me their records had been compromised by an intruder, and wanted me to be aware by monitoring my credit card statements for any unknown transactions, and vigilant for possible phishing scams. But those messages were sent on the next day after they realized their security had been breached, not a week later!!

message #23 | Monday April 25, 2011 | Milouse

Sony Computer Entertainement's communication departements have been build around new hardware/games marketing. Facing such "crisis" is not really what they expect to do. That alone could explain why they did not deal with this matter the way consummers could have expected.

message #22 | Monday April 25, 2011 | adellanotte

I have read somewhere that SONY does not store any credit card data, which calms me. For those who may be interested…

message #21 | Monday April 25, 2011 | adellanotte

One of my concerns about this is wether the intromission has reached our personal and data bank or not. If yes, we should know before anyone what really happened. Now I don't know if someone has my credit card details and security code, so I've just cancelled it. Sony has not stated anything regarding this, wich for me is totally unacceptable.
We shouldn't forget how long is the Terms and Conditions agreement we accept when signin into services like PSN. They always cover their backs leaving us as simple accepters. It would be interesting if someone with law knowledge read the agreement in a more deep way just to let us know how our rights could have been affected.
And finally I'd like to know what's to happen with those "Plus" users. They obviously should receive a compensation for that non-service paid days.
In my opinion there's a big big problem for Sony, and I think their silence is saying so much.

message #20 | Monday April 25, 2011 | batera99

Psx005 wrote: @batera99: you seriously need to get rid of the tinfoil hat.
Sorry, are you sure you're referring to me? I'm wearing no tinfoil hat. It's not me who was denying for almost a week that there was no problem in the network. Read the forums, their phone operators were instructed to say this for several days. Anyone could read in the news that Anonymous had planned a "big" one added with demonstratons at stores on the same Saturday we started experiencing problems to log in. At least now they admit that they had an "external intrusion". Why such delay to state the obvious? I'd rather they come clean since day 2. As a big company, you might try to hide these things for a day or two, but after that, IMO it becomes ridiculous.

message #19 | Sunday April 24, 2011 | BEACHYY1

Jeeze Sony could have given us some warning rather than just taking the network down, luckily I had put 2 of my Bob's offline leaving 4 in which I cannot use so having to B-spec race with 2 that are now totally exhausted lol..............comon Sony have a little thought for your customers,whilst anything to improve the service is always very welcome try to do it (with some notice)during the working week and not over a BANK HOLIDAY weekend for us Brits!!!!!!!!

message #18 | Sunday April 24, 2011 | adellanotte

Update On PlayStation Network/Qriocity Service
+ Posted on 23.04 by James Gallagher
We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.
We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available.

message #17 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | adellanotte

Good job. Forza Kubica!

message #16 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | Busisko

@adellanotte: You have right, specially about finishing races, I completed B-spec, license on gold and special events on gold :)))

message #15 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | adellanotte

Good luck, youre doing a fine job.
Cheers.

message #14 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | Milouse

I've done the linking module, i need to integrate users images on car page and user page, with needed image managing options... I would be surprise to finish that within a week.

message #13 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | adellanotte

When do we xpct to have that feature operational?

message #12 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | adellanotte

Thanks Milouse. I'm currently using Apple's MobileMe and got a year subscription (not chep btw…). Anyway I'll take a look at those. Txs again.

message #11 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | Milouse

About GT5 photos, if you want to be sure to share your pics on mygranturismo.net once feature available, I should advice you to use Imageshack or Photobucket services, as these are the first two from which you'll be able to link images to here.

message #10 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | adellanotte

Tips Having Fun with Offline GT5
Hi everyone,
Once admitted the fact of not being able to play online, and trying to have a positivie attitude, there are many things you can do offline. We should not forget that GT5 is an enormous game, always ready to give us lots of fun in mary different ways.
Things I recommend to do while being offline:
- Practice. Is the first thing to do while being offline. The Practice mode in GT5 is perfect to improve you lap times, specially at those tracks you love to race online. Find the best setup for your cars while having fun.
- Game Events: Fun and Money. Finishing those A-Spec, B-Spec and Special events you never had the time to accomplish, specialy those that were specialy hard to get, will report you lots of fun and money. Now you've got time, but got the patience?…
- Garage Under Control. If you have a heavy garaje, this meantime is perfect to take a look at your cars giving them the time you normally don't have. You'll find sweet surprises if you give the cars you never drove the chance to be tested. I use Top Gear Test Track to test my cars and find nice setups for future races. In addition is a good time to change oil and wash your most used units.
- Photos. Got many replays from online races? Now is perfect to take a look at them, and why not, to make some photos. One of the things I've done while being offline is exporting some of my best GT5 photos to my Mac to publish some galleries, like this. Take a look; they're pretty good (in my humble opinion).
http://gallery.me.com/antonello99#100334
- Videos. I love capturing footage form GT5 gameplay. You can do it by simple record directly form the screen using your smartphone, or using a video capture device. I also edit it and publish to Youtube, where I have recently established a permanent channel. Take a look if you want.
http://www.youtube.com/adellanotte
World does't end with Playstation Network

message #9 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | Milouse

@patotraverso, even Sony doesn't know. This is a technical issue they try to fix.

message #8 | Saturday April 23, 2011 | patotraverso

Serious Problem ! i want my network back too ! somebody knows... when??

message #7 | Friday April 22, 2011 | captainskyhawk

I want my network back !

message #6 | Friday April 22, 2011 | Live4Lotus

I wonder if this has anything to do with the big switchover from SCEA to SNEA. I was online for about 20 days strait when I was kicked off to agree to some new agreement...since then, the network hasn't worked right, with disonnects happening every 5-10 hours, loads of connectivity issues with individual game servers, and now a total outage for the last few days.
I don't know if it was something they changed or if they are being attacked, but either way...they need to fix the situation (either revert the settings if they changed something, or if they are being attacked, they only need to stop suing innocent linux developers while ignoring the people that write backup managers).

message #5 | Friday April 22, 2011 | adellanotte

Whos got the responsability on this?
This is a very severe issue.
Consecuences are already unimaginable.
Just a thought: Do we really realize how much network-dependant we are? As a human being, I dont like the feeling.

message #4 | Friday April 22, 2011 | Psx0005

@batera99: you seriously need to get rid of the tinfoil hat

message #3 | Thursday April 21, 2011 | batera99

the links I received in the USA were:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/
http://community.us.playstation.com/message/31072065#31072065
Now, why only now, after 6 days of everyone in their network experiencing problems to log in or stay connected, they come out with the first "official" post recognizing there is a problem? What were/are they trying to hide?

message #2 | Thursday April 21, 2011 | Milouse

Thx Stevedue, looks like blogs gives different amount of information from one country/zone to an other. Anyway, things don't seems to be under control...

message #1 | Thursday April 21, 2011 | stevedue

Is official: http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/04/21/update-on-psn-service-outages/

While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we’re able to get the service completely back up and running. Thank you very much for your patience while we work to resolve this matter. Please stay tuned to this space for more details, and we’ll update you again as soon as we can.

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