PlayStation Network Hopes to Bribe You to Forgive Them

Fuck you Geeosystem, shut your Geohot dick sucking mouths!

I don’t have enough cash to buy infamous or lbp. your argument is invalid.

I don’t have enough cash to buy infamous or lbp. your argument is invalid.

i own 2 of the 5 EU games offered and am struggling to pick between the remaining 3, already being a PS+ subscriber 30 days is cool for me and I’ve not heard of this video rental stuff but not being american I’ve not got Netflix and chosen not to take up LoveFilm either. Still I got a launch PS3 and game on it regularly – they just happened to pick some great titles I missed ^^

Still despite having studied the depth and breadth of the breach – being a computer games technology student at a university that offers course Ethical Hacking helped with that one – I still don’t feel like I’m being bribed. Just annoyed that we live in a culture where people have to be given free stuff by victims to avoid lawsuits (oh wait!) and such.

The breach at Sony Online Entertainment and the card details lost there is however a COMPLETELY separate matter and whilst I’ve not looked into what they are doing to make up for it, not being an SOE customer, it had better be good.

I have to completely disagree with your analysis, Geekosystem. First, and most importantly, you’re wrongly shifting blame onto Sony when it should be on the cyber criminals who did this. I’m an IT guy and this so-called retaliatory “grey-hat” cracking is complete garbage. They stole innocent people’s private information just because they could. Sony learned a tough lesson from this that protecting your network infrastructure is absolutely paramount. But being in IT I can tell you that the impenetrable system DOES NOT exist. There is no such thing as eliminating cyber threats. You can only do your best to mitigate them. The fools who perpetrated this attack are not cool. They’re script kiddies–largely ignorant of software architecture as a whole, they simply go to these hacker sites and share pre-made scripted malware with each other and use it to wreak havoc. And innocent users are caught in the middle. 

You are also wrong to say that Sony is falling short in their attempts to make good to their customers. You stated that Sony provides a free online gaming service. Customers agree to the terms of that service. I frequently use the PSN service for online gaming and never would I blame Sony for being the victim of an attack by criminals. I, and other users and Sony are on the same party–the aggrieved party. We had our info stolen by thieves who lack either the motivation or the desire to put their (questionable) skills to work for good. I understand that Sony is a massive corporate entity and it is easy to loathe such organizations. But I would never blame them for being attacked. The ones who engaged in cyber crime are the ones to blame.

This article is of poor form. Your arguments are for getting MORE free stuff from the company that was already giving you a free service when THEY were attacked by criminals. Its shameful. Please avoid posting articles like this to your otherwise very fine online publication.  

Whilst I’m not a PlayStation 3 user, I’m just going to say this: SONY should not give you anything at all for something they are not guilty of. If anything, they are giving you something in return for your patience, not your collaboration in the situation.

I don’t blame Sony. The hackers are who we should blame. You know why? Because they’re the ones who *fucking did it*. Really, after Anonymous hacked them once already and proved it could be done (and I’m not blaming them either – I proudly support Anonymous in all of their endeavors so far), it was only a matter of time before people saw the opportunity and took advantage of it.

In fact, they’re taking a hit here in my case. I was deciding between a Wii and a PS3. Two of the PSP games they’re offering are two of the big reasons I wanted a PS3. So I clearly picked the Wii now that I’ll already be getting them anyways.

I dunno. It sounds like you’ve got some issues to work through, though. Like buyer’s remorse mixed with some sort of deep-rooted jealousy. You see everyone else getting their free stuff and you already paid for all that stuff and now you’re regretting having bought those games before even though you didn’t know they’d be free and you want to also have free stuff because it’s not fair Billy’s mom bought him an ice cream cone why can’t I get one mommy whyyyyyyyy IT’S NOT FAIRRRRRRRRR I WANT IT I WANT I WANT IT NOWWWW

tinyurl.com/297sxrk

You can tell that Sony paid a lot of people to post favorable posts about this whole incident.  Only absolute sheep would have a problem with an article wanting a better “Welcome Back” package that actually compensates long-time PS users for the credit card scare.  I mean, seriously, do you work for Sony?  If not, just kindly shut the hell up.  Sony doesn’t need your help. 

It’s like dealing with scabs who cross the picket line.  If you’re not going to do your part to make Sony accountable for not properly encrypting it’s credit-card files (which was extremely irresponsible even if they weren’t hacked), then don’t cross the line.  It’s that simple.  You’re helping no one.  Sony doesn’t need you.  They make billions with or without you.

tinyurl.com/297sxrk

To clarify: I would rather have nothing given to me in compensation but rather receive an honest explanation that they totally dropped the ball on this one, in terms of security and response.

Instead, we have gestures. Sony has a responsibility to provide adequate protection for their customers. I do not blame for the attack, that was not of their doing. But the security they provided and the response they gave? That’s all on them.

Well as riveting and supporting of freedom of speech as that sentiment was I have a few hairs to split.

And, No, I’m not being paid to write this, like you said Sony make Billions with or without you.

Firstly, the article doesn’t blame Sony just for its poor choice (and I’ll agree selection could be better) as much as for the meaning behind it – “they are instead making grand gestures that are actually fairly meaningless.”

So what would you suggest is suitable grovelling to you anyway? I mean, you don’t seem the type to want the Black Ops DLC or whatever it is but its gonna be something recent and therein lies the problem. Everyone has different desires so do you go the route of ignoring large swathes of people (and then getting articles like this about them) or do you give everyone the brand new game they want resulting in how much more damage to their pockets, remember all those games you would have bought on PSN Store, all the security firms coming in to ensure they knew what had been taken so they could tell you, the year’s credit monitoring for everyone implicated all costs money too. 

Also, I hate to tell you this but the credit card “scare” was all consumer made and media driven too – had you read ANY and I mean ANY of the reports from Sony about it everyone stated (and still does) There is NO evidence your credit card details were taken, we’re just playing safe. So you can blame your local paper for the “ZOMG! Apocalypse is coming, credit card details all gone” headline. Not that it matters, because as Sony also state and as you would expect the entire Credit Card table was encrypted. [See: http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/04/28/playstation-network-and-qriocity-outage-faq/]

So lets see… personal attack, helping no one, debunked credit card encryption theory, go back to little corner.. Here we go: The compensation we already got which you guarantee Sony would have never given had it not been for those people you call complainers. Firstly, cite any evidence you have for reasoning they wouldn’t thanks. And Second as I said in my first post, it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth that they should have to give us what they did for what they did not do.

Again, Sony Online Entertainments debacle where they did lose unencrypted CC details from a database they weren’t using anymore (and so clearly shouldn’t have kept) is ridiculous and they have a lot more making up to do but this article doesn’t concern that.

Lets be totally frank about it, they’re are giving us something in the hope we won’t sue them for the distress caused by our encrypted card details not being stolen or some utter ship like that, really hate this culture of suing everyone over everything

Lets be totally frank about it, they’re are giving us something in the hope we won’t sue them for the distress caused by our encrypted card details not being stolen or some utter ship like that, really hate this culture of suing everyone over everything

I totally understand where you’re coming from with this one (read – thank you for not being unreasonable about it all)

Just as a note, the delay in notification in the end came down to about 2 days whilst they guaranteed they knew what had been taken as much as possible to comply with law in some stupid wee state and for security there is no such thing as the impenetrable server of course – perhaps their is something they should have done in advance but imo it was a serious attack inflicted on them – not some schoolboy anonymous menacement, anyone would break with that much attention on them.

I’m not a PSN subscriber or even a PS3 owner and even I can see that Sony is just trying to insincerely make the hurt go away. If they really wanted to make amends, they would apologize profusely and spend that time and energy giving away free older titles, and instead make sure, for their subscribers sake, that they’re network is better than before. What they’re doing just seems to be what you’d expect from an abusive relationship. Don’t fall for it, don’t be suckers.

tinyurl.com/297sxrk

Ugh is nowhere sacred from spam >.<

Much as I hate Captcha I also hate emails telling me werpwippo has posted his link again :(

Also given this is one of the VERY few technology and geekery sites I follow I'm somewhat loyal, even on the odd occasion our opinions clash ;)

Any chance you's could do that thing where the first few times someone comments its moderated automatically then once they've posted non-spam a few times they're granted full posting rights?

I quite like that system :)

Back On Topic however:

 I have no idea how this manages to equal out to an abusive relationship in your head. This is more like a good husband forgot to lock the door before bed and somebody came inside at night and a few of your things may or may not have been missing.

 I have no idea how this manages to equal out to an abusive relationship in your head. This is more like a good husband forgot to lock the door before bed and somebody came inside at night and a few of your things may or may not have been missing.

and he’s buying a few things to make up for it cause he feels bad but you demand MORE!

See, they’re not even giving this stuff away for you. They’ve been spending their time trying to fix this stuff every step of the way. They’re giving it away to hordes of screaming masses who will not rest until they get something to make up for the fact that they couldn’t play the same three maps in Call of Duty repeatedly for a couple months because they need their 8th prestige.

And until your credit card starts showing charges on it that you didn’t make (in which case, the whole free identity theft protection thing they’re offering should cover it), they don’t owe you anything, because you haven’t lost anything. Aside from maybe the ability to play your FREE online service for awhile, to which all I have to say is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_e-YZvFu3E&feature=player_detailpage#t=8589s

no u

no u

“Credit Card table was encrypted.”
But the personal data tables weren’t encrypted at all.  That includes user-names, passwords, and addresses which are often cross-related with critical customer financial accounts.  Again, irresponsible behavior with information that we trust Sony to secure.  

“But but but that’s not the same as Credit Card #s!”
Yes, it’s potentially worse (assuming we trust Sony actually secured our CC#s with respectable encryption in the first place).  Because a significant majority of PSN savy customers use online-banking that employ security measures consistent with a person’s personal information.

“But but but there was no evidence that any fraud took place!”
Except, there was.  Many people were reporting suspicious charges during this whole security debacle.  The only thing is that you can rarely verify the origin of a fraud (i.e. where the thief got his information in the first place) so you can bet that Sony is stressing the claim that “technically there is no verifiable claim of fraud linked to the Sony leak.”  There rarely is, and mostly never is during these kind of security breaches.  The bottom line is they were still reckless with our personal information in the first place – a multi-billion dollar company that we trust to do better.

“cite any evidence you have for reasoning they wouldn’t give us compensation if there wasn’t an uproar”
What about the fact that it took them a week to actually tell us that our private information was stolen?  If it were up to them, they probably would never tell us, much less give us any compensation.

“it leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth that they should have to give us what they did for what they did not do.”
So I assume you work for Sony right?  If not, why are you working for free to defend them?  They’re spending millions of dollars on lawyers to defend their multi-billion industry and they’ll definitely win – with or without you.  Why not instead put pressure on them so they know never to recklessly handle your private information ever again?  Wouldn’t that benefit you as a customer much much more?

And I say that as a person who regularly buys Sony products.  I’m not an Xbox fanboy or anything.  Being a critical customer benefits you more in the long-run.  They’ll make their billions either way, but the latter ensures that they’ll work their damn hardest to give you the best experience possible and honest enough to never to cut corners again.

You’re right of course personal data tables weren’t encrypted but thats far from common practice, the password was hashed (which is common practice) which means that even with it the worst they can do is, connect to PSN as you and are you telling me that I couldn’t achieve your name and address through 5 mins rooting through your garbage, if not you’d be one of the minority. So why do people expect Sony to secure information you know more than storing it on a secure, firewall protected server (with exploit obviously) when you don’t go to even that extent to protect it yourself.

Also if you’re bank is using personal information like your address as security prompts you may want to talk to them about that, mine used all old information first school, first pet, mothers maiden name dealy stuff that it doesn’t take 5 seconds for anyone to find out.

So there is evidence fraud took place potentially not related to Sony therefore you are vindicated to demand more free stuff off them? Not like their footing the bill for credit monitoring for a year so that you’ll know if someone steals your identity or that the banks will cover you for transactions made by others from your account and yeah as explained not reckless, unfortunate if you were subject to the same scrutiny as they were you’re favourite flavour of jam would be public knowledge by now. As I said before perhaps is there something they could have done better but until we know the exploit we don’t know that for sure, which means we probably never will but it still wouldn’t account for all that much we’re just back to the impenetrable server again.

As i’m sure I mentioned earlier the reason that it took them a while to inform us was because they needed to investigate what, if anything, had been taken so as to comply with law in certain states where you can’t just tell people their information may have been stolen with no evidence, not because they didn’t want to ruin their image, their smart people and know that not telling you is much worse than telling you in this case. Just trying to avoid ANOTHER court case and walk the fine line of laws around the world. So I hold the rest of the conjecture in that statement moot.

You’re kidding about that last bit right though? I say that I dislike the fact Sony (or any company) are forced to cough up to appease their customers when they aren’t (in my eyes) guilty of anything, including incompetence and all in all just sick in general of the no questions asked sue everything attitude that people have these days. A sense of self-importance that is just ridiculous, Sony didn’t want to tell me, Sony don’t care about me, Sony have mistreated me when really they’re striking a balance with users across the globe and their lawmakers… or perhaps its just the pangs of greed demanding more money from more cases and more free stuff for making up for stress that you’ve not suffered if you’ve spent any amount of time thinking about the situation. So yeah, that is more or less why I’m playing Sony’s side this time round – in my eyes they’re the better party.

You wanna be critical like I say take one look at SOE, that was gross negligence and assuming they don’t make up for it appropriately they’ll deserve any reasonable lawsuit slung at them.

And I say that as a person who’s only Sony product is the Playstation certainly not a PS Fanboy and definitely not impressed with Microsofts products in general, if anything Samsung’s my fetish – they do good monitor/tv’s and good phones (despite the blip that was the Jet) but thats for another day.

Oh and sorry about the essay, I always get carried away when I’m writing lol

So I assume you’re working for Microsoft right? If not, why are you working for free to condemn Sony? They’re spending millions of dollars on lawyers to defend their multi-billion industry and they’ll definitely win – with or without you. Why not instead chill out and accept that they’ll never visit this site and see your complaining? Wouldn’t that benefit you as a human being with a finite amount of time on this planet much much more?

ummm… is everyone brian dead the welcome back package feature only games sony knew you already would own so not as many people are going to download them and it wont cost them shit. If you own a ps3 and are a gamer you already own Little Big Planet, Infamous, Wipeout and the PSP games yea thanks but no thanks sony. But I should say after giving away all my information, then promising me something good this feel like I am getting fucked again.

what this article make me realize is that the author of it has some kind of grudge against ps3/sony

If they have already admitted that they screwed up, what else do you want from them? They can’t personally apologize to every single ps3 owner. They said sorry, and they offered a little extra on top of it. I’m sure there’s a small percentage, compared to the millions of owners who have every single title they are offering. Don’t be butt hurt cause you already bought the game. I think they mean well and I’m sure they know their customers are pissed, but I don’t really see what else they can do. Maybe just hand out a brand new ps3 to their existing customers?  They probably still wouldn’t be happy then.