14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has just posted a pretty big FAQ guide on the PlayStation Blog, answering many questions addressed by PlayStation Network users who have been left without the online service for over a week now and found out yesterday that their personal information might have been stolen by hackers.
Sony isn't going through the most cheerful period in its history, as the Japanese company admitted that it was attacked by a group of hackers last week, and that, in order to prevent any serious damage, it took the PlayStation Network online service down.
Sadly, the company revealed that personal user data, ranging from names or addresses to even credit card information, might have been stolen by the perpetrators.
Now, the company has posted a big FAQ list on its PlayStation Blog, answering many of the questions that were forwarded to it by regular PSN users which, as you can imagine, aren't very pleased with the whole issue.
According to the FAQ, Sony is working together with law enforcement agencies as well as reputed security firms to track down the hackers and see just what harm they caused to the PlayStation Network.
The company then answered a few questions about the user data, as well as credit card information.
"All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. 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."
Sony emphasizes that there isn't any concrete evidence that hackers stole credit card information, but that it "cannot rule out the possibility," so it is advising PlayStation Network users, as well as Qriocity ones, to be especially wary of any type of email, telephone or postal mail scams that might target them for sensitive data, and thoroughly investigate their credit card statements.
The Japanese company revealed that a new system software update will be released, which will "require all users to change their password once PlayStation Network is restored."
The new, improved and more secure PSN is already taking shape, but Sony says that there are still many things to do, so we'll probably see it back up next week.
"Moving forward, we are 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. We will provide additional information on these measures shortly."
"Our employees have been working day and night to restore operations as quickly as possible, and we expect to have some services up and running within a week from yesterday. However, we want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we are confident that the network is secure," Sony concluded.