Also, after doing some digging around in some hacker sites (PSX Scene, PS3 Crunch etc) I've found out that yes, the Rebug CFW gives it's users the ability to access dev servers, add or remove an unlimited amount of funds to the PSN wallet, and even access content not available without a code (like game beta's and pre-order exclusives etc). Plus, the Rebug CFW also gives the option of faking the hard drive capacity, so that you could essentially trade it into a shop saying that it's a 320gb model, when it's only like 80gb or something. Go and read www.rebug.me for more information, it's crazy how much awful stuff they've enabled people to do. Also, hacking your console enables backups, which in some cases enables piracy, and people were playing online using these backups, so perhaps Sony are rebuilding the network to block out backed up games from being played?

Who knows, but my best guess is that they are rebuilding it to block out the serious amount of PSN Store related hacks and the access to the 'sp-int' and the 'prod-qa' development network partitions.

Well, I suppose I'll be keeping a closer eye on my credit card statements for a while.

Now you see if this were to happen on the Wii...Oh wait.

THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN ON THE WII!

Nintendo's has been right all along, you enter those damn credit card details everytime FOR A REASON!

I have been in Bad Company 2 withdrawal for 6 days now, i need my fix sony.

Wow

So I'm almost more worried about what is going to happen when Sony turns this thing back on. The comments about them "restructuring" the system are really weird. I can't imagine wanting to take down and re-structure a system that large and complicated. There must have been something really really bad going down for them to want to do that. And doing some major re-work with only a few days to test before releasing it to millions of users and thousands of apps... I shiver just thinking about it.

I'll pour one out for their engineers, I'm pretty sure if stuff doesn't work when they bring this back up, they'll spontaneously combust.

" @Keeng: Xbox Live is also a MUCH older service then PSN is. Of course it would have had more down time simply because it's 4 years older than PSN. "

" @Hizang:  And people give Nintendo's online service shit for not storing credit card information. "

Hopefully when they get the new PSN up, they'll think to include some credit card security and encryption.  You know, the kind even small time internet stores have had for years now.  Still don't like the idea that your system will automatically login to your account and allow transactions without even a password prompt to confirm identity once it's logged in unless you know enough to change the settings.  No idea how secure it is inside PSN itself, but from what I've seen user side, I'm not exactly filled with confidence.

Also, anonymous (while having hackers in their ranks) aren't normally what you'd call a hacking group.  Or rather some may call them that, but they're not.  They're a flooding group.  They operate mostly by overloading systems, not actually compromising them.  Annoying as can be at times, but rarely really dangerous in any way.  Sure a member or a small group of members might do it, and might even use the anonymous "name."  But this isn't really their MO, so (as others have pointed out) they say this isn't them, and I'm inclined to believe it.  Also, when have they ever not taken an opportunity to brag about their exploits.  They're not exactly humble about their "work."

" @AncientMecha said:

" But Anonymous isn't anti-consumer right? Right? PFFFFSH, right. "

They didn't do this one. "

Luckily my credit card info on PSN has been out of date for a while.

" @Jeffsekai said:

" @AncientMecha said:

" But Anonymous isn't anti-consumer right? Right? PFFFFSH, right. "

They didn't do this one. "

How the hell do you know that? They already f#$#ed up psn. Just because they say they didn't really does not mean anything.  "

This is why I'm glad that I've never used my card on psn

Well that's not good...

"

Well, I suppose I'll be keeping a closer eye on my credit card statements for a while.

"

Sarcasm...

Great!

" @Jeffsekai: Anon is a messy group of individuals who is not to say that by judging from their lack of leadership one or a couple of them decided they should take down PSN?Just saying they can't be trusted . Hacker=uncoventional "

This is shown how insecure the PSN was. As someone who has their card details I am definitely nervous until they say whether details were leaked or not.

Good thing i don't use my CC/Bank card online.

pre-paid visas ftw

I actually don't believe it's Anonymous. Only Anonymous is dumb and ironic enough to plaster their name over everything they do.

" This is shown how insecure the PSN was. As someone who has their card details I am definitely nervous until they say whether details were leaked or not.

Insecure system or not, hackers should not be able to get away with these kind of things. It has hurt the gamers more than sony, so what was the point?

If Sony is taking the time to make the system more secure than thats all good, but why wait until they were attacked before doing it? Maybe, just maybe we will get a nice new feature out of this (party chat), heres to hoping

"

really want to hear an update about this.

The longer it goes on with little or no details from Sony other than 'We don't know', the more worried I get....If five days later it was just a hack that did not affect consumers and only gave away free goodies to hackers, they should have said so by now. Instead we get nothing  publicly other than we don't know what happened or when it will be up again.....scary.

This is getting a little scary.

" @Jeffsekai said:

" @AncientMecha said:

" But Anonymous isn't anti-consumer right? Right? PFFFFSH, right. "

They didn't do this one. "

How the hell do you know that? They already f#$#ed up psn. Just because they say they didn't really does not mean anything.  "

the playstation store home page looks nothing like that anymore

" As a dude who just had his personal details yanked a month ago and then used against his will, it would be really nice if Sony could at least say, “Hey, you know, maybe these people do have your credit card number and address.”    "

It's definitely inconvenient to have your credit card info stolen but is it really that difficult to monitor your activity and phone your card provider at the first sign of suspicious activity?

I've had it happen to me once, it was a pretty simple process. Not to say that I'd like it to happen again, just that it really wasn't as much of a hassle as some let on. Maybe my experience is the exception to the rule however.

Only an idiot would save their credit card info on a console. Buy the cards at the store dummies.

this is reaching ridiculous levels. fortunately I don't have any money or details on my PSN account, but this is some serious legal buisness going on.

I just read on another site that they hope it should be back by the weekend. This was taken from a news affiliate from the same network that VGChartz and GamReview (or whatever the hell it's called) is from.

" @wh4tshisface said:

" @TurboMan said:

" great job of pissing off anonymous, Sony...  now we're all possibly in trouble. "

They already said they didn't do it.  "

Indeed. "

Great... if credit card information is stolen, Sony is gonna be in the shitter. They've had a rough year so far. Can't wait for Trentton's optimistic speech at the E3 press conference

@butchio:
In the past, if you were Sony and you had proof that your console was hackproof, and you've yet to have a hack then it's understandable to believe that your system is currently hack-proof, until you're made aware it isn't hack-proof anymore because someone has finally managed to hack it.

Baring in mind that even if you believe it's hack-proof you'll likely still have your best people monitoring it for signs of hack attempts.

At which point Sony has definitely had their best programmers and code guys working on the hole in their chainmail since it was first discovered.

Why do you think they released a patch shortly after George "Geohotz" busted open their protection setup?

" @xyzygy:  have you got a link to the story? "

" @Jeffsekai said:

" @wh4tshisface said:

" @TurboMan said:

" great job of pissing off anonymous, Sony...  now we're all possibly in trouble. "

They already said they didn't do it.  "

Indeed. "

OJ Simpson said he didn't do it too, but look how that turned out "

 
Ok, I've seen a bunch of speculation of why people think PSN is down, and I thought I should just post what the community knows in comparison to what Sony is telling everyone. The truth is, there was a new CFW (custom firmware) released known as Rebug <redacted so GB mods dont ban me :)>. It essentially turns a retail console into a dev console (not fully, but gives you a lot of the same options that usually dev's only have access to). Anyway, this new CFW was quickly figured out to give CFW users access to the PSN network again via the dev networks. With a little manipulation of the URL's through a proxy server you could get your hacked console back online. Not that big of a deal, right? Well, it also turns out that some people over at NGU found out that you could provide fake CC# info and the authenticity of the information was never checked as you were on Sony's private developer PSN network (essentially a network that Sony trusted). What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content. Sony realizing the issue here shut down the network. Now, before you go freaking out about the latest information posted about Kotaku, no ones personal information was accessible via this hack. Not to say they couldn't get it, but no one is admitting to it being available. Anyway, that's the real reason for the PSN downtime. Sony is now rebuilding all of it's PSN servers to be more secure and (hopefully) make sure the CFW users cannot get online anymore.

"

 
Ok, I've seen a bunch of speculation of why people think PSN is down, and I thought I should just post what the community knows in comparison to what Sony is telling everyone. The truth is, there was a new CFW (custom firmware) released known as Rebug <redacted so GB mods dont ban me :)>. It essentially turns a retail console into a dev console (not fully, but gives you a lot of the same options that usually dev's only have access to). Anyway, this new CFW was quickly figured out to give CFW users access to the PSN network again via the dev networks. With a little manipulation of the URL's through a proxy server you could get your hacked console back online. Not that big of a deal, right? Well, it also turns out that some people over at NGU found out that you could provide fake CC# info and the authenticity of the information was never checked as you were on Sony's private developer PSN network (essentially a network that Sony trusted). What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content. Sony realizing the issue here shut down the network. Now, before you go freaking out about the latest information posted about Kotaku, no ones personal information was accessible via this hack. Not to say they couldn't get it, but no one is admitting to it being available. Anyway, that's the real reason for the PSN downtime. Sony is now rebuilding all of it's PSN servers to be more secure and (hopefully) make sure the CFW users cannot get online anymore.

source "

I can't believe people are comparing hacking to murder. . .