Sony gives update on PSN intrusion and safety of personal data

We have been reporting on the PlayStation Network "external intrustion" and rumors. Today, Sony Computer Entertainment gave an update on the break in that forced the network offline and possibly exposed the personal information of millions of members. Patrick Seybold, senior director of corp. communications, announced via the PlayStation.blog, that the company will be "taking steps to make our services safer and more secure than ever before."

That includes "a new system software update that will require all users to change their password once PlayStation Network is restored." The software update will likely be released to both the PSP and PlayStation 3 by the end of the week. No changes can be made at this time because all PSN accounts are locked out.

Sony revealed that it's "initiating several measures that will significantly enhance all aspects of PlayStation Network's security and your personal data, including moving our network infrastructure and data center to a new, more secure location, which is already underway."

The plan is to have the network operational by next week and stated, "we want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we are confident that the network is secure." This makes complete sense. I would much rather them take a bit longer to increase safety.

Sony also gave the following updatess to PSN account holders who are concerned about the damage already done to their personal information or credit cards.

Here is what they said about the safety of your personal and financial data:

The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

Here is an update on the credit card details that the PlayStation Network and Qriocity do and do not store:

While all credit card information stored in our systems is encrypted and there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained. Keep in mind, however that your credit card security code (sometimes called a CVC or CSC number) has not been obtained because we never requested it from anyone who has joined the PlayStation Network or Qriocity, and is therefore not stored anywhere in our system.

For more details and what seems to be an apology visit the PlayStation.blog. I know this is horrible timing for Sony with the release of Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat, but at least we can still watch Netflix. As a PlayStation user/fan this whole situation is frustrated, but I am still glad that I have a PS3!

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