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Bad News: All Sony Online Games Taken Offline, Due to That Whole 'External Intrusion' Thing [UPDATED]

Do we all get free EverQuest accounts now?

UPDATE: Sony just sent out a press release explaining the reason for the SOE outage, confirming that user information was stolen from the SOE servers in two separate incidents on April 16th and April 17th, 2011. Apparently, most of it was from an outdated database that mostly held expired credit card info. So says the release in greater detail:

This information, which was discovered by engineers and security consultants reviewing SOE systems, showed that personal information from approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts may have been stolen, as well as certain information from an outdated database from 2007.  The information from the outdated database that may have been stolen includes approximately 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes), and about 10,700 direct debit records of certain customers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain.

So, if you live in America, good news everyone! Your SOE customer info is probably safe. As for the rest of the world? Bad news, everyone! Your (hopefully) old credit card/debit card info may have been compromised. There is additional info on the situation over at SOE's website, including steps to take if your information was, in fact, compromised.

--

They say "when it rains, it pours." For Sony, these past couple of weeks have been less a pour and more of an end-of- Deep Impact brand of killer tidal wave. With the PlayStation Network still down and Sony still working on repairing the service's infrastructure in the wake of the intrusion by hackers that maybe-involved-your-identity-getting-stolen-but-possibly-it-didn't-but-more-likely-it-did, now yet another bit of bad news has befallen the beleaguered publisher.

No Caption Provided
Sony Online Entertainment, the MMO arm of Sony's games division, put up notice today that it had taken down all of its online servers due to the "external intrusion" that Sony Computer Entertainment has been investigating relating to PSN. Though SOE's PC operations had thus far remained largely unaffected, intermittent website issues had been reported and acknowledged as early as April 21st, around the same time Sony opted to take the PlayStation Network down.

So reads the statement on Station.com:

"We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday)."

SOE would not elaborate on that statement when we asked.

SOE maintains a number of MMO franchises, including EverQuest, PlanetSide and DC Universe Online. While we don't know if the Monday timeframe is definite or just some kind of "high level ballpark estimate," we'll keep an eye on Station.com and update this story with new information that becomes available.
Alex Navarro on Google+

122 Comments

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thenexus

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Edited By thenexus
@Cogzwell said:
" People don't just hack online networks! This isn't just a matter of Sony got unlucky, this is a matter of Sony let a lot of people get screwed do to lack of proper security infrastructure. If this isn't Sony's fault than why is it we never see crap like this happen to Xbox live or Steam? Oh yeah! because they have secure servers! (I'd assume) "
You are correct.
A hack means that someone attempts to modify/change/adapt/gain entry into something. To do so they exploit a bug/flaw/hole in the system to do so.

AS you indicate while it aint on and I feel for Sony clearly there has been some gaping wholes in their system to cause this and require the downtime and work to fix them.

I will have a guess that the playstation network and SEO service shared the same structure or some code/structure was very similar so that the same exploit could be applied.
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subyman

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Edited By subyman

Good god, they need to just pack it up and leave town.  It took them half a month to realize they were attacked?

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Caegn

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Edited By Caegn


Sony did say that they only just found out about the breach of SOE.  Strange as it sounds, I really hope they're lying.  Really REALLY hope they're just lying.

 

Cause the alternative is that two weeks went by after PSN got hacked, before it occured to them to check their other systems.  Really REALLY REALLY hope they're just lying.  The deception would piss me off, sure.  But the alternative is just sad.

 

How can a company that can be so good on the hardware end, suck so very much on the programming and PR ends?  Sometimes I feel sorry for the hardware devs there.  They live up to their part by making impressive stuff, only to watch the other departments butcher everything they touch.

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Lunar_Aura

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Edited By Lunar_Aura

Poor Sony. :(
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Kordesh

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Edited By Kordesh

Why am I less than surprised at Sonys utter incompetency. This is why I canceled my card and got a new one regardless after the first issue.

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Matfei90

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Edited By Matfei90
@Ertard said:
" For fucks sake! I used my fucking credit card to sign up for DCUO. I cannot fucking believe how utterly terrible Sony are at handling their shit.

GAH
"
Same here... I thought I was safe as I've never bought anything through PSN, assuming it was limited to PSN.

Good job, Sony.
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P_Pigly_Hogswine

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Edited By P_Pigly_Hogswine

So as an Australian who bought a PS3 in 2008 should I be worried? And when should I consider cannibalism?

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McGhee

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Edited By McGhee

If you were smart you would've canceled your card already anyway.

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p_p_o_d

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Edited By p_p_o_d
Weird that someone would even bother attacking SOE.    most people including sony employees have forgotten it exists 



Also if I where the one investigating the recent sony hacks I would start looking at the 200 SOE employees fired a month ago.   










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RsistncE

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Edited By RsistncE
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Sooty

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Edited By Sooty
@McGhee_the_Insomniac said:
" If you were smart you would've canceled your card already anyway. "
Can't login to find what cards I have on there, been so long since I bought anything.

FFFFFFFFFF
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SK2

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Edited By SK2

Sony keeps going back and forth in their statements and even though I'm unaffected by it, it's annoying me. I can only imagine what it's like for those who are affected by it and have to remain on their toes about their credit cards.

I think Sony needs to release facts before they start releasing speculation.

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DukeTogo

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Edited By DukeTogo

As if playing SWG for a month in 2003 was punishment enough, now this.

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Maotou

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Edited By Maotou
@Swordfish9 said:
" Wat them Skynet are back!! "

 What!? I'm not prepared for this attack dammit!

  And in other news, Sony has been royally screwed up the arse yet again. Sony just can't catch a break can't they?
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02sfraser

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Edited By 02sfraser

I live in the UK but got a new debit card recently do hopefully I'll be okay. I think they way Sony are handling this is terrible. I feel sorry for them but they just keep releasing 'maybe' and 'probably' answers which is no use. Customers need a definite answer when it involves their details being stolen!

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thepantheon

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Edited By thepantheon

Nice try with that linked to Screened.com but I ain't fallin' for it, Gadget!!

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Nomin

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Edited By Nomin

Okay, now, I'm feeling a tinsy bit of sympathy for this conglomerate multi-national corporation. Just a weensy bit. 

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Druminator

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Edited By Druminator

Ugh. No PSN for two weeks now. The worst thing for me is not being able to update some new games I got so they're kind of glitchy and cause my PS3 to freeze, fuckin' sucks!!

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deactivated-64d26467db8de

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@Raven10:  Thanks!

I don't have a PS3 so I'm doing what I can to protect my info on Xbox Live, Steam, Apple, Amazon... damn. How many of my credit card numbers are floating around out there?
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kmg90

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Edited By kmg90
@Druminator said:
" Ugh. No PSN for two weeks now. The worst thing for me is not being able to update some new games I got so they're kind of glitchy and cause my PS3 to freeze, fuckin' sucks!! "
Game updates are still operational, I just received Assassins Creed in the mail, never played before on my current system, it prompted for '1.10' update which it did download and install with out a hitch
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Lind_L_Taylor

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Edited By Lind_L_Taylor

This is all just a scam to make sure no one can ever
have free online access to Sorny's shit ever again.
Probably Sorny hired someone to fuck it up to give
justification for jacking up prices to the masses.