psn

When a company's security system fails like Sony's PlayStation Network did, resulting in the second-largest data breach in U.S. history, there will be a lot of opinions shared of exactly how to make it up to customers.

A U.S. senator and at least one class-action lawsuit have called for Sony to provide free credit monitoring, and in the latter's case, monetary damages. But legal obligations aside, how does Sony make up for lost time for customers using their service, lost personal information, and lost trust?

This is what Sony has come up with so far: … Read more

Sony is firing up the PlayStation Network again and most of America should have access by now. But the Japanese government says it won't allow PSN back on in its country until Sony can ensure that it's triple-dog-super-secure. Which, uh ... I kind of want it to be that secure here, too, don't you? Plus, artists gets screwed by pirates AND the RIAA, the fascinating and potentially globally destabilizing bitcoin project, and the power of Prey gets back a man's laptop from hundreds of miles away. --Molly

Sony said today most PlayStation Network services are working now. For real, this time.

On Saturday, Sony announced that after almost four weeks its entire portfolio of online games, game forums, and Web sites would go back online. After service resumed in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East, however, heavy traffic on the network caused it to be inaccessible again. Sony said it had to "turn the service off for 30 minutes in order to clear the queue" of too many password resets submitted at once.

But today most things are back to normal, said Sony Social Media Manager Jeff Rubenstein in a blog post. That includes signing in to PSN and Qriocity, the ability to reset passwords, playing online with the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, and watching unexpired video rentals. Third-party services like Vudu, Hulu Plus, MLB.TV, and Netflix are accessible now, as well as Friends Lists, chat, trophies, in-game leaderboards, and PlayStation Home.

For those still waiting to receive their new passwords following the reset, Rubenstein asked customers to be patient. … Read more

Sony may have more work to do to jumpstart service to its PlayStation Network.

The entertainment and electronics giant announced yesterday that its entire portfolio of online games, game forums, and Web sites would go back online today. After service resumed, however, users started complaining on Twitter that it wasn't active long before it was unavailable again.

"Playstation Network was back up for about 10 minutes before going down again for maintenance," Tom Cranfield tweeted. "Nice work Sony!"

"Playstation Network is Back down looks like the servers have crashed," Lee Fraser of Manchester, … Read more

Are you a disgruntled PlayStation Network gamer? At least you're not alone--there are more than 100 million PSN users who've had their data nicked by shadowy digital thieves. Sony's (probably) working hard to get the service back online before everyone throws their PS3s in a canal, but with the only date we have to go on still nearly three weeks away, we thought we'd rattle through a few suggestions of what to do in the meantime.

1. Go outside Just kidding. We hate the outdoors as much as you. Seriously, it's full of bugs and pollen. Besides, everyone knows you can get a decent tan simply by turning your monitor up really bright.

Read more of "With PlayStation Network still down, what else is there to do?" at Crave UK. … Read more

Sony hasn't provided the public any significant update about the status of the PlayStation Network outage or investigation into the security breach in a week. It turns out its video game publisher partners aren't getting much more new information either.

At least that's what we can surmise from a letter from Sony's head of publisher relations that was leaked to gaming blog Industry Gamers last night. The letter mostly repeats what Sony has already posted on its PlayStation blog and written in e-mails to the 77 million users whose information was exposed in a cyberattack more … Read more

Sony Online Entertainment today offered more details on how it will compensate customers affected by the three-week-long outage of the PC and console gaming network, which Sony says should be online in "at least a few more days."

U.S. customers with an account for the multiplayer online gaming service will get free identity theft protection from security firm Debix. Customers in other countries will be getting similar offers soon, according to the statement. This is in addition to the offer made last week to PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers affected by the same breach.

In addition, all players will get one month of free service as compensation, plus another free day for every day past one month the service remains inaccessible. Sony Online is also giving players in-game bonuses for several of its titles, both for PC games and PlayStation 3 games such as DC Universe Online, Free Realms, and EverQuest.

Customers who've paid for "lifetime" subscriptions will get free in-game currency (20,000 coins for Free Realms, 7,500 Galactic Credits for Clone Wars Adventures, and 10 Marks of Distinction for DC Universe Online).

For a complete list of the in-game bonus items, see the company's statement. … Read more

In a recorded message directed at PlayStation Network users outraged by the cyberattack that has kept it offline for three weeks, the hacker group Anonymous again denied orchestrating the attack.

The audio statement was posted online today at Anonops.blogspot.com, and for the first time allows for the possibility that individual Anonymous participants may have acted apart from the group as a whole.

"While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves, AnonOps was not related to this incident and does not take responsibility for whatever has happened," the message says.

While Anonymous … Read more

This week: We bemoan the unending PlayStation Network downtime, see who's winning the tablet vs. laptop fight, and debate business plans for digital magazine subscriptions. Guest @davidcarnoy joins in to win some prizes for the live chat room audience by answering e-book trivia questions.

Bonus: Download the show's jaunty theme song as a free MP3 here.

… Read more