Tag: PSP

Sony Computer Entertainment America has outlined its “Welcome Back” offering for the North American market. It’s full of free games and services. Here are the details posted by SCEA’s Patrick Seybold:

All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.

• Dead Nation
• inFAMOUS
• LittleBigPlanet
• Super Stardust HD
• Wipeout HD + Fury

For PSP owners, you will be eligible to download two PSP games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.

• LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
• ModNation Racers
• Pursuit Force
• Killzone Liberation

• A selection of “On Us” rental movie titles will be available to PlayStation Network customers over one weekend, where Video Service is available. Those titles will be announced soon.
• 30 days free PlayStation Plus membership for non PlayStation Plus subscribers.
• Existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an additional 60 days of free subscription.
• Existing Music Unlimited Premium Trial subscription members will receive an additional 30 days of free premium subscription.
• Additional 30 days + time lost for existing members of Music Unlimited Premium/Basic subscription free of charge for existing Premium/Basic members.
• To welcome users Home, PlayStation Home will be offering 100 free virtual items. Additional free content will be released soon, including the next addition to the Home Mansion personal space, and Ooblag’s Alien Casino, an exclusive game.

Today’s poll is simple: are you satisfied with this compensation? Kindly vote and discuss!

[poll id=”116″]

Along with information on the phased restoration of PlayStation Network, Sony also outlined the steps it has taken to improve PSN’s security. These measures include advanced technical measures and personnel reassignment. Today’s press release stated:

The company has made considerable enhancements to the data security, including updating and adding advanced security technologies, additional software monitoring and penetration and vulnerability testing, and increased levels of encryption and additional firewalls. The company also added a variety of other measures to the network infrastructure including an early-warning system for unusual activity patterns that could signal an attempt to compromise the network.

As an additional measure, Fumiaki Sakai, president of Sony Global Solutions Inc. (SGS), has been appointed acting Chief Information Security Officer of SNEI. In addition to his current role at SGS, Mr. Sakai, in his role at SNEI, will work to further reinforce overall information security across the company’s network infrastructure. Mr. Sakai will lead the recruiting effort in finding a new and permanent CISO for SNEI. As CISO, Mr. Sakai will report to Tim Schaaff, president, SNEI, as well as to Mr. Shinji Hasejima, CIO, Sony Corporation.

I was fine with PSN security before and I’m fine with it now. In my mind, every lock can be picked. While the new and improved PSN is surely more secure than its predecessor, I’m sure there are capable hackers that can take it down. The recent outage was an unusual circumstance that Sony wasn’t prepared for (even though it may or may not have asked for the problem).

To me Sakai’s new position is more notable than any technical enhancements. Having more people dedicated to combat hack attacks means that Sony will be better prepared to deal with “external intrusions” in the future.

How do you feel about Sony’s PSN security improvements? Do you feel better about storing sensitive information on your console? What do you make of Sony appointing a CISO?

Watch Sony Corporation executive deputy president and Sony Computer Entertainment group CEO Kaz Hirai address the rolling restoration of PlayStation Network in the video above. In addition to restoration details, Hirai outlines PSN’s improved security, identity theft concerns, “Welcome Back” compensation, and more.

Check out the clip and share your thoughts on it (please!). Just for kicks, give Kaz’s address a letter grade in the comments section. I’m giving him a B+.

Hackers in “underground” Internet forums have been talking about selling credit card information allegedly stolen during the recent PlayStation Network security attack. Forum chatter is easy to dismiss, but several security experts believe that there might be something there. Here’s a clip from The NY Times:

Kevin Stevens, senior threat researcher at the security firm Trend Micro, said he had seen talk of the database on several hacker forums, including indications that the Sony hackers were hoping to sell the credit card list for upwards of $100,000. Mr. Stevens said one forum member told him the hackers had even offered to sell the data back to Sony but did not receive a response from the company.

“Sony is saying the credit cards were encrypted, but we are hearing that the hackers made it into the main database, which would have given them access to everything, including credit card numbers,” said Mathew Solnik, a security consultant with iSEC Partners who frequents hacker forums to track new hacks and vulnerabilities that could affect his clients. Mr. Solnik said that people on the forums had details about the servers used by Sony, which may indicate that they had direct knowledge of the attack.

I’m not sure about this one. A lot of it seems like fear mongering. I also expect more from The NY Times. Using anonymous forum chatter as a news source is like writing a videogame story based on a NeoGAF thread. Oh wait, that actually happens.

Anyway, what do you guys and dolls make of this? Is it fear mongering? Or are millions of PlayStation Network users at risk?

Source

Renowned hacker and former Sony target George Hotz (GeoHot) wrote an insightful and interesting blog post on the PlayStation Network security breach. Before he really gets going, he made it clear that he had nothing to do with the attack. Although he’s a proud hacker, he’s not the kind that engages in identity theft. He also feels that Sony spent too much time and money having lawyers go after hackers instead of firming up PSN security. Here’s an excerpt:

To anyone who thinks I was involved in any way with this, I’m not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door. Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony.

Also, let’s not fault the Sony engineers for this, the same way I do not fault the engineers who designed the BMG rootkit. The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.

I highly recommend reading the entire post. There’s lots of great stuff in there and Hotz is in an extremely unique position to provide commentary on Sony.

Source