With the recent news that millions of PSN users personal information has been compromised, I've seen a lot of people up in arms over this. And understandably so, having your credit card details out there is one thing; not knowing about it until nearly a week after it happened - that's another.

But what's the worst that could happen?

Some guy buys a yacht with your credit card. Big deal. They trace it back to him and it's case solved, right? Perhaps he shares the info with some of his friends, or even the internett, any purchase fraud is covered by Visa, Mastercard etc, no?

Am I taking this too lightly, or are people blowing this way out of proportion?

With the recent news that millions of PSN users personal information has been compromised, I've seen a lot of people up in arms over this. And understandably so, having your credit card details out there is one thing; not knowing about it until nearly a week after it happened - that's another.

But what's the worst that could happen?

Some guy buys a yacht with your credit card. Big deal. They trace it back to him and it's case solved, right? Perhaps he shares the info with some of his friends, or even the internett, any purchase fraud is covered by Visa, Mastercard etc, no?

Am I taking this too lightly, or are people blowing this way out of proportion?

Cleaning up after dirtbags who steal you identity is not as easy as you seem to think it is.

While I never use credit card information for consoles (I buy prepaid cards), the thought of not just 1 but an unknown amount of people knowing my information is stressful. Some people just don't want to deal with crap like that.

" Cleaning up after dirtbags who steal you identity is not as easy as you seem to think it is. "

Why would anyone just be okay with strangers knowing their name, address, and credit card information?

" Cleaning up after dirtbags who steal you identity is not as easy as you seem to think it is. "

It's definitely not so bad for credit card stuff, but if these people were able to steal your identity, that is a whole new ball game. Now as to how they are able to do it, with just a name and address, I don't know.

I don't have much else in there other than my name, add, phone and cred. Which still is scary thinkin about it, I've removed all my info from all my systems and steam cause of it. I should of a few months ago, had a buddy on XB and PS get hacked and they downloaded a bunch of games to their system and racked up 300-500 on their cards :S.

IGN put up a good article about what to do if you're credit card gets used :

 http://ps3.ign.com/articles/116/1164194p1.html

" Why would anyone just be okay with strangers knowing their name, address, and credit card information? "

How old are you, 12?

" How old are you, 12? "

I honesty don't feel as worried as everyone else I guess.  I keep an eye on my account and will easily spot some shady shit on there but outside of that most of the talk about stolen identities and the like is all speculation mostly seeded in people's want to know they are completely secure. I'm definitely not saying that this whole situation is pretty idiotic but I don't feel the now is the time to set my social security card ablaze and prepare my new life as Mr. Thompson from Terror Lake.

Some guy buys a yacht with your credit card.

Identity theft can effect your credit rating and that can last for 7 to 10 years.  Maybe today you're not worried about such things, but a few years down the line if you want to buy a car or even a home, it might.  People need to see past today.   Now, I say this with the assumption that the hackers have stolen active credit cards and are using them.  If they haven't, then it's much less a problem.  According to Ars Technica, they got your name, address, email address and some PSN info like login etc...  With all the people running around with Facebook accounts and what-not, I don't think most of that information is that important provided you don't act the fool and answer the Nigerian prince's email request for aid.  A lot of it is public record.   However, if the hackers have your credit card information with expiration dates then that could be a very big problem and if wide spread credit card fraud occurs this could drag on for years.  

Luckily I don't have a credit card, just a bank card, and my spending limit on said bank card is ridiculously low. Nobody can buy a yacht with my weak-ass card. :P In addition, I get email alerts if more than $50 is spent in one transaction. Can be annoying at times, but it could potentially be a lifesaver.

" Identity theft can effect your credit rating and that can last for 7 to 10 years.  Maybe today you're not worried about such things, but a few years down the line if you want to buy a car or even a home, it might.  People need to see past today.   Now, I say this with the assumption that the hackers have stolen active credit cards and are using them.  If they haven't, then it's much less a problem.  According to Ars Technica, they got your name, address, email address and some PSN info like login etc...  With all the people running around with Facebook accounts and what-not, I don't think most of that information is that important provided you don't act the fool and answer the Nigerian prince's email request for aid.  A lot of it is public record.   However, if the hackers have your credit card information with expiration dates then that could be a very big problem and if wide spread credit card fraud occurs this could drag on for years.   "

Having your identity stolen is not something easily cleaned up. An identity thief can totally destroy your credit and generally fuck things up for you. It then takes a lot of time on a phone, and a lot of hoop jumping to hopefully get things corrected. It isn't some little deal that a quick phone call erases.

" Having your identity stolen is not something easily cleaned up. An identity thief can totally destroy your credit and generally fuck things up for you. It then takes a lot of time on a phone, and a lot of hoop jumping to hopefully get things corrected. It isn't some little deal that a quick phone call erases. "

1. the odds of that happening are akin to winning the lottery
2. such purchase fraud would only leave a crumb trail for the authorities to track him down.

Identity thefts are nothing new, the criminals usually just steam a few dollars from each acount and the bank usually pays the customer back (although in most cases it's the customer's fault), but in this case the personal details of millions (might) have been stolen which means tha banks won't pay back and people would sue Sony for a lot of $. Also the damage all of this has caused people to not trust Sony which in the long run will cost them whole lot more.

"

                    @FireBurger said:

"
                Having your identity stolen is not something easily cleaned up. An identity thief can totally destroy your credit and generally fuck things up for you. It then takes a lot of time on a phone, and a lot of hoop jumping to hopefully get things corrected. It isn't some little deal that a quick phone call erases.
            "

OK, worst case scenario: he uses your credit card details. Sure, it would be a major pain in the ass. But:

1. the odds of that happening are akin to winning the lottery
2. such purchase fraud would only leave a crumb trail for the authorities to track him down.

So unless this guy wants to risk blowing his cover, he can't do shit.

                   

                "

"If you only knew how often identity thefts happened you wouldn't say that, and for the most part the police don't catch the hackers (who usually are employed by russian mafias). "

" @Mr_Skeleton said:

"If you only knew how often identity thefts happened you wouldn't say that, and for the most part the police don't catch the hackers (who usually are employed by russian mafias). "

This is wrong.  The PartyVan IRC said the FBI was involved and some users on the PartyVan IRC vanished.  The guess is that the people who hacked PSN did it Stateside.   "

" @FireBurger said:

" Having your identity stolen is not something easily cleaned up. An identity thief can totally destroy your credit and generally fuck things up for you. It then takes a lot of time on a phone, and a lot of hoop jumping to hopefully get things corrected. It isn't some little deal that a quick phone call erases. "

OK, worst case scenario: he uses your credit card details. Sure, it would be a major pain in the ass. But:

1. the odds of that happening are akin to winning the lottery
2. such purchase fraud would only leave a crumb trail for the authorities to track him down.

So unless this guy wants to risk blowing his cover, he can't do shit. "

Credit theft: happens as often as the lottery. And other nuggets of wisdom brought to you by Karl Pilkington.

Yo, don't feed the troll.

" @FireBurger said:

" Having your identity stolen is not something easily cleaned up. An identity thief can totally destroy your credit and generally fuck things up for you. It then takes a lot of time on a phone, and a lot of hoop jumping to hopefully get things corrected. It isn't some little deal that a quick phone call erases. "

OK, worst case scenario: he uses your credit card details. Sure, it would be a major pain in the ass. But:

1. the odds of that happening are akin to winning the lottery
2. such purchase fraud would only leave a crumb trail for the authorities to track him down.

So unless this guy wants to risk blowing his cover, he can't do shit. "

" Credit theft: happens as often as the lottery. And other nuggets of wisdom brought to you by Karl Pilkington. "

" And again...Sony not telling the public for an entire week...I'ma say it again...an entire week that their private information was at risk is in-bloody-excusable."

" Yo, don't feed the troll. "

" @zombie2011 said:

" How old are you, 12? "

Turning 13 next month. "

This is something that will affect different people in different ways.  I'm personally aware that identity theft is a problem, but it hasn't happened to me or anyone I know so I am at a loss in that respect.  I think it's not unreasonable for people to take precautions because of that, but I think it's also possible to have a more measured response about this without getting too focused on the worst case scenario.  Prepare for it or even anticipate it, but still be open to the possibility you may not be affected.  I haven't had any real problems with Sony or the PS3 up until this point, and I haven't noticed anything off with my bank account.  Yet, of course, but we'll see. 

It's a double-edged sword with this:  this resulted from one hacker getting the root key and another exploiting it, but it's also on Sony's head because this security breach was hardware related and essentially something they cannot fix without all new hardware(as had been pointed out to me in a comment section yesterday).  So . . . I'd be making an understatement if I said this was a messy situation.  I won't deny Sony the opportunity to learn from this, though, but I think there have been enough PR nightmares in the past few years to help them on that front.  That being said, I'd rather they be thorough first and know the full scope of the situation than make a premature statement and backtrack. 

The only perspective I have a hard time sympathizing with are those taking an extreme response, the type of responses that sound more like comments made on yahoo.news.com than someone just realizing they need to do what they need to do to cover their bases.