Coffee Talk #343: Consoles, Personal Information, and You

With Sony’s revelation that user information — including credit card numbers — was compromised when PlayStation Network was hacked, I wanted to get your thoughts on tying your info to your consoles. I know that…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, President Obama’s birth certificate, the fate of SETI, or your favorite Britney song, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

With Sony’s revelation that user information — including credit card numbers — was compromised when PlayStation Network was hacked, I wanted to get your thoughts on tying your info to your consoles. I know that a few of you only make console purchases through gift cards and codes. Those of you that do are looking extra smart this week. For those of you that use your credit cards on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, are you wary of doing so now?

Personally, I’m not too worried about it. In my limited experience, my banks have been pretty good at alerting me about fraud attempts — if anything, they’ve been overly paranoid. Plus, it’s not like I have money or anything (ha!). In the particular case of PSN, I’m guessing that the hack was a result of Sony’s strong-arm stance against people like GeoHotz. I will, perhaps naively, assume that malice was intended towards Sony Computer Entertainment and not its customers.

Now it’s your turn! How do you feel about the issue? Are you paranoid? Are you carefree? Or somewhere in between?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

28 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #343: Consoles, Personal Information, and You”

  1. I'm glad I used hotmail to setup PSN. I'll definitely only use gift cards or credit from Amazon going forward. I do it on iTunes already so it's no big deal.

    I had no idea what SETI was until yesterday. Thundercracker and I had a good laugh this morning about it.

  2. I use codes and gift cards and also have my xbl account tied to my hotmail not gmail. I would say I'm very cautious with personal info. I use aliases and 123 Memory Lane for my address when signing up for things.

  4. I'm not worried at all. Even though I did JUST get the e-mail today (that's a whole 9 days after the problem was detected), I know enough about the incident to know the hackers responsible are outraged at Sony, not their consumers. If they did take info from customers and use it against them, they'd just be showing why Sony needs to take action against hackers; as a result, they won't touch personal info. In fact, I think Sony sent out the e-mail not as a precaution against legal problems, but rather to blacken their public image.

    Long story short: Don't worry about this incident. Their aim was to spite Sony, so you shouldn't be affected.

    1. Questions:

      1) How do we REALLY know exactly what their aim was?

      2) If that was indeed their aim, does that mean I should trust intelligent bottom-feeders?

      3) There is no honor among thieves… right?

      1. Answers:

        1) We can guess their aim because the hack occured after Sony started going after the hacker NeoHotz and the hacker community wasn't happy. They don't like that Sony was going after a fellow hacker, so they complained by hacking PSN.

        2)Not all hackers are bottom-feeders, though the ones that pulled off this hack must be pretty intelligent. Don't trust them, just know that their aim is to spite Sony.

        3)There is most definitley honor among thievess, just to a certain extent. Hackers don't want to be known as thieves, so they generally steer clear of taking things from people.

  5. I'm usually never paranoid about something like that. I won't go around just giving my credit card or bank information out to anyone, but when it comes to something like inputting my info on a game console I'm never that worried. Either nothing is going to happen, if someone really wants to find my address then they probably will. If something happens with my credit card info then my bank will take care of it, or my discover card will take care of all of my accounts like they have in the past.

    I wouldn't want my information to get out like what happened with Sony, but if it did I think I'm covered fairly well. I've never felt the need for an alias or a fake address unless I could tell it was going to end up being spam.

    1. Wow, I wish I could be so trusting still.

      My mother in law had her identity stolen. Once the damage is done (and it happens VERY fast because these assholes no that someone will more than likely cancel the card before too long), the bank can't really do anything. They aren't just going to take the monetary hit because you lost your card and let your info get stolen. If they did, they would be hit with an obscene amount of fraud from people maxing out their own cards, cutting them up, throwing them in the sewer, and saying it was stolen.

      My mother in law is still paying off what the bastards got, and it's been like 8 years.

      You can get insurance against it. That's about it.

      1. Yeah that's why I went with AMEX. Built in statute protections. I don't like using a debit card for that reason. Though that will change sometime in July this year with the Durbin amendment. I would expect debit card fees to rise substantially since banks will lose out on 2 billion worth of fees.

        AMEX also warranties my electronics purchases. Took me a while to get used to writing a huge check out to them once per month…..but now…I wouldn't have it any other way.

  6. I never use a Credit Card on my consoles because

    A) My friend's XBL account got hacked and he got taken to the cleaners and MS wouldn't do anything

    2) I deal mostly in cash

    iii) It is just as easy for me to go buy a PSN card as it is to load money on a card.

    I do (did) have a little over $100 in my PSN account. I haven't been able to check it lately so I hope it is all still there.

    If someone gets my e-mail address….big whoop. Gmail does a great job at filtering my mail.

    1. I doubt the funds in your PSN account are touched because it has no real value. Those funds can only be used on the PS store as funds. It's not like the hackers can transfer them somewhere else or turn it into gold.

    2. He is awesome.

      I really want the Browns to be good again so our rivalry is actually worth a damn.

      1. in IT terms that means a month :)

        "we need to take the network down for about 15 minutes"

        **4 hours later***

        "should be up and running tomorrow morning"

      2. i know ray, but this is a HUGE deal, this is a bigger deal than the xbox's epic fail rate. Im curious to see how Kaz and jack tretton spin this whole deal. Wont the hackers just keep hacking the network?

  11. Methinks it's time to delete my Amex info from XBL.

    Don't even know why it's on there in the first place; I use codes to buy anything on XBL.

    -M

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