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PSN hackers attacked Admin Dev accounts, services returning in a day or two, SCEE source claims

  • Posted April 24th, 2011 at 04:06 EDT by Adam Dolge
  • 134 Comments

A source with close connections to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe reports that the attack to the PlayStation Network may be a bit deeper than originally reported by Sony. According to the source, who wishes to remain anonymous, the PSN sustained a LOIC attack (which created a denial-of-service attack) that damaged the server. There was also a concentrated attack on the PlayStation servers holding account information. In addition, “Admin Dev accounts were breached.”

As a result, “Sony then shut down the PSN and [is] currently in the process of restoring backups to new servers with new admin dev accounts.” The SCEE source said Japanese servers may be restored tomorrow while the U.S. and E.U. servers will likely be operational the following day.

While this information is only corroborated via a series of Facebook messages, it is certainly not a stretch. Sony Computer Entertainment America recently confirmed that it pulled down the PSN because of an “external intrusion.” This essentially means that hackers were to blame. Sony is officially conducting a thorough investigation. The PSN and Qriocity services were pulled offline by Sony on Wednesday, April 20.

There was plenty of speculation late this week that the Anonymous hackers group was to blame for the PSN downtime. The group previously targeted Sony in retaliation to the legal action against another hacker. Anonymous has since denied involvement in the current PSN downtime.

Again, this information is from a source who claims to have a very close connection with someone at SCEE. We take these reports for what they are at this time, but it is certainly a possibility. If you have information to share, please do so.

"Everyone deserves the right to know what’s been going on," the source wrote in an email.

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Comments

  1. Fon

    • 11:20pm EDT - April 23rd, 2011

    If it was, Anonymous then they would of taken credit of the attacks by now but they denied any involvement.. Something tells me that the attack came from something much larger then a hacker group. Perhaps a rival company?

  2. Packbox

    • 11:24pm EDT - April 23rd, 2011

    hmm.. maybe its a small group within anonymous. I just dont get it, If it does happen to be from a rival company.. now thats justs cowardish and palying dirty.... B~tch. Well it cant be helped..  ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌

  3. 3n1GMA

    • 11:27pm EDT - April 23rd, 2011

    @FonFahbre Maybe Anon didn\'t take credit because the FBI is after them and they could face 10 years of prison. Check youtube for the report on the news about it. They may be dumb, but I don\'t think this dumb

  4. thirstygsus

    • 11:30pm EDT - April 23rd, 2011

    What if this is sony\'s attack on the hackers. Breeding hate for them. Just a theory but it would not suprise me. Sony shuts down its stuff, never losing control, and makes it all seem like its the hackers and we should hate them.

  5. Juztin

    • 11:31pm EDT - April 23rd, 2011

    I am pretty sure it is Mircrosoft This is happening just a few days before they launch XBOX NATION Something similar to PSN. Seriously.. this is to deep of an attack..

  6. TheTenth666

    • 11:31pm EDT - April 23rd, 2011

    time to put an end to these "hackers/pirates", they don't even understand the consequences of their actions and that they're now enemies of all PS3 gamers, I can't do anything being in France, but to any PS3 gamer that has a lead to these guys, just report it to Sony or the authorities

  7. floetry

    • 12:03am EDT - April 24th, 2011

     "According to the source, who wishes to remain anonymous"

     

    I lol'd when I read that, Yes I took it out of context, but it was funny nonetheless.

  8. adamdolge

    • 12:11am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    @7 - haha, good call -- I do not think he was from Anonymous, he's just anonymous :)

     

  9. heyman26

    • 12:28am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    o so wen they hack user profiles they just update firmware, but when they hack admin. & dev. accounts they pull the plug. aaaahhhh free enterprise baby!!!!!

  10. SZRT_Ice

    • 12:38am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    After all this downed PSN business, I figured I had some time on my hands. So I looked up Anonymous and found some interesting facts about them. Anonymous is a "group" of hackers, not just one. They've attacked gov't sites, Visa, Mastercard, and a company that provides internet security for gov't sites. They've attacked an Egyptian gov't site, and were rumored to be planning an attack on a U.S. Gov't site for holding a whistle blower in captivity somewhere. I highy doubt these guys could care 2-cents about lying about hacking the PSN. If they'd did it, they'd own it. Not deny it in the slightest. They actually feel as if it's some sort of claim to victory if they do. Claiming lulz in the process. (Apparently "Lulz" is like "lols" but at the misfortune of another...) It could be a number of people, groups, or even a ploy by Sony themselves to turn people against Anonymous and save $$$ in server costs/maintenance in the process... Thus the fun factor of conspiracy theories...Nonetheless, I just want to get back with my team and friends online... Let life go on...
     

  11. but3737

    • 12:44am EDT - April 24th, 2011

     want a cure for all the stress from this entire ordeal? one word..... portal. :D

  12. ps3_spid3y

    • 1:00am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    If it was anonymous they would have proudly admitted this like they have after taking governmental websites and computers down. Like someone else said this could easily be another well aided group taking advantage of the whole situation while anon gets made the scapegoat. But Sony really should try to reveal more information because this is just ridiculous..even if it takes admitting that "yes our servers were hacked".

  13. ps3_spid3y

    • 1:59am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    Also, maybe one reason Sony isn't releasing much info may be that some private information like CC info may be a risk? They haven't realy answered this question so far. If they say Yes, Sony could lose a lot of shareholder value over night.

  14. TyranT2

    • 2:20am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    Sounds like CC and personal data was vulnerable.

    By law Sony has a duty to inform us about a breach like that immediately.  But being a Japanese company, I'm not surprised they're keeping it hush hush (It's embarrassing).

    If thats the case, I smell lawsuits.

  15. kdryan2

    • 2:35am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    Yeah, about all of these people saying the hackers are making enemies of PSN users... I don\'t think so. Most of what I have read so far says Sony pretty much had it coming and the general consensus is if this is what it takes to teach Sony a lesson, then so be it. Personally, I think it serves them right. They run this thing like Communist Russia and the whole thing has been brewing since the backward compatibility that for some reason they could, then couldn\'t put into the PS3. Sony has pissed a LOT of people off and now it\'s coming back to haunt them. Screw \'em...

  16. johnodd4

    • 2:41am EDT - April 24th, 2011

     Now if this is true awesome because i have a japanese account and can finally get back online.

    but sony needs to notice that by restoring the japanese servers first they are making u.s playstation customers angry because they should all be restored at once not one one day and one another thats really cruddy thing to do.

    and worse still the question hasn't been answered why the dev accounts also why where dev accounts stored on a server they should have a seperate server for dev accounts this would have avoided the blackout conditions on the ps3 for everyone.

    another question also comes to mind why didnt sony block the denial of service attacks when the same morons brought down sony's website for the first time.

    also if they think that there in the clear they got another thing coming if the hacker group provided tools to this individual person to hack the ps3 network they can be charged as accessory to computer terrorism which is a 10 year federal sentence they can also be charged with distrubuting illegal code to damage property act which is apart of the federal communications act 

    so if sony finds them sue the ever loving crud outta of them for all of us

  17. dUnAgAn14

    • 2:49am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    i think the hackers should stop or who ever is doing it i mean its not just effecting our game time so why would they do something like that unless its from somebody who is in xbox live i mean think about it why would a hacker that plays ps3 take down the PS network towers so they also cant play so it is either Xbox, Anonymous, or a rival company and Anonymous said they had nothing to do with it even if they did do it they wouldn\'t admit to it any way..... the part i cant get by is that sony has been around longer than microsoft so wouldnt you think that sony should be harder to hack in than microsoft... so it has to be somebody from microsoft doing this you dont ever here xbox 360 geting hacked liked this.

  18. darthrazorback

    • 2:50am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    Like I told you all in the other article comments section, this was accomplished via a virus/worm dropped on the network that compromised the system at the highest level.  ALL accounts were compromised and that is why Sony brought the network down.  Unfortunately, the scope of this issue is only known to Sony but rumors are that it is so massive that once consumers are aware of it, that it will forever damage Sony's reputation.  Therefor, Sony is going to offer a big apology in the form of free content to all Playstation owners.

  19. rEaPeR14

    • 3:05am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    well at least they gave us a update i dont care who hooks up first as long as we get back up and running

  20. Dschmitt1010

    • 3:12am EDT - April 24th, 2011

    They are working around the clock. I\'m sure they want it up more than we do. Nobody can see into the future and foresee what\'s gonna happen. It\'s a shame what people do for attention. Showcase to blame should be ashamed and embarrassed. They have alot of people po\'d at them now.

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