Submitted by Sony just restarted its Playstation Network, after the massive security fail dismissed as a ‘hiccup’ by Sony CEO Howard Stringer. Well, the PSN has barely been up two days, and a massive security oversight has already been discovered. Yes, Sony just got Sony’d. Again. Unbelievable.
This is just unbelievable. You may recall that as part of the PSN’s relaunch, Sony released a new firmware version that forced you to change your password as an additional security measure. The problem is that before the first massive security fail, if you had honestly forgotten your password, you could create a new password by going to a Sony website and entering your email address and date of birth. Nothing special, and this site was still working just fine after PSN’s relaunch to aid people in changing their passwords.
Until you realise that your email address and date of birth were among the leaked information. This means that hackers can simply go to the change-password website, enter your email address and date of birth form the stolen data, et voilà , your account has just been re-exploited. It doesn’t matter if you have already changed your password following the recent firmware release.
Nyleveia discovered the exploit, and confirmed that it does, indeed, work. They contacted Sony immediately, and sure enough, the web-based change-password function was taken offline by Sony shortly after. Remember that the change-password functionality on the PS3 itself is still working just fine, since it cannot be used for the exploit.
“Unfortunately this also means that those who are still trying to change their password via Playstation.com or Qriocity.com will be unable to do so for the time being,” Sony told EuroGamer, “This is due to essential maintenance and at present it is unclear how long this will take. In the meantime you will still be able to sign into PSN via your PlayStation 3 and PSP devices to connect to game services and view Trophy/Friends information.”
No system is ever safe, huh, Stringer? It was just a hiccup, huh, Stringer? I’m no security expert, but I’m starting to a structural problem here.
I just accidentally a whole coca-cola bottle is this bad?
LOL
and drink a glass of water. Hiccups can be really hard getting rid of.
I have a feeling Sony are going to become a target just for the parody sake.
Sony. News. Bored.
How fscking incompetent can you be and still get employed by Sony? Blindly accepting the sending email address along with some readily available information as an authorization token? Seriously? In 2011???
Have you learned NOTHING at all in the last 10-15 years?
The mind boggles that someone could come up with this braindead scheme in 2011.
Sad thing is, it’s not just Sony. A lot of the corporate world puts impact on profit above doing things properly.
One should always remember that a for-profit corporation is in the business of producing profits and whatever product they happen to make is simply a tool used in the profit manufacturing process.
Microsoft manufacture’s profit; they happen to use software in the production process.
Sony manufacture’s profit; they happen to use moving pictures and game consoles in the process.
I think it’s actualy an obligation within corporate law that when a decision comes down to benefiting the shareholder or benefiting the customer, they must choose to benefit the shareholder at the expense of the customer benfit.
As such, they’ll fight tooth and nail over something that directly impacts the current management’s short term performance goals but something that directly impacts the customers.. fk them; they’re just wallets that have already been harvested.
Sorry, this is wierd logic. Any company that wants to be relevant will examine their market and treat their customers well. Otherwise they deserve to fail and be replaced by another entity which does it better and friendlier.
Stupidity like this propagates when companies are deemed “too big to fail” and when smaller business contenders are frankly killed because of artificial barriers that exist due to excessive regulation, stupid tax codes, confusing legal codes, patent corruption, etc. Basically the enemies to the free market.
I agree, natural market forces should be motivating companies to place customer benefits ahead of shareholder benefits. In a healthy market, the company that favored the shareholder would loose out to a company that favored the customer.
Deep pocket lobbying has done a lot to sully the situation. Marketing and mass media brainwashing doesn’t hurt the profiteers either. The businesses primary goal being directly at odds with that of the consumer. And, it’s not just the business side though either; us consumers in general are apathetic and only interested in the cheapest easiest solution until after the fact when it bites us in the ass. Even my own buying history includes a minority of fast purchases that lead to quality replacements from another vendor soon after.
From the business perspective, it’s about making a quick profit over the short term to impress the board and shareholders. The CEO is contracted for only a few years and must show performance in that time to justify a bonus and negotiate the next contract based on the previous one. If CEO Bob’s last corporation showed a steady decline then he’s going to have trouble negotiating an even more exorbitant salary from the next engagement. From the shareholder perspective, they don’t invest money in Nike because they are passionate about sports equipment; they do so because they expect to see returns on that investment. Most of Microsoft’s investors don’t care what product the company makes just so long as it continues to increase shareholder wealth.
From the consumer side, it is wierd to realize that the business perspective is so diametrically opposed to the marketing line and your interests.
Edited 2011-05-19 18:40 UTC
And this is unbelievable … how? This is Sony we are talking about …. get with the modern times … lol!
One would think that there is a shortage of security experts on the Sony little big planet.
Boy, you sure ran that in to the ground…
This is pure gold, it’s now officially out of the realm of lulz and into feeling second hand embarrassment for Sony.
And if you think this is bad, read this (hint: this password reset debacle shouldn’t be a surprise)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/us-sony-idUSTRE74C7042011…
All in all, I’m glad I signed up for PSN under the name S. Holmes from 221B Baker Street.
I wonder what Sony’s definition of a hiccup is? 77 Million user accounts compromised, including credit card details. PSN off line cutting service to millions of customers, and when the service is finally resumed its fscked again in 2 days.
If the worst Internet security disaster ever is a hiccup what would Sony consider bad? A virus that turns all Playstation users into flesh eating zombies?
Or maybe its just someone putting Linux on their Playstation?
Edited 2011-05-18 18:01 UTC
Indeed… this is more like a shart.
Or maybe Exorcist-style projectile pea-soup vomiting.
Oh no, that is beyond bad. That’s an offense of titanic dimensions that should render the death penalty or worse.
hehehe
+1 funny (already posted – cannot moderate)
B-u-u-u-u-r-r-r-p-p-p-p!!
What bugs me most about PSN, is how difficult it is to get rid of your account. While you can easily send an email to Apple requesting to delete your account, there isn’t really such thing for PSN.
I once registered for PSN to try out GT5 Promo on a friend’s PS3 who didn’t have a PSN account back then. I didn’t really use the account that much after that, so I looked for a possibility to delete my account.
Somewhere I found an email address in the UK where one can request a deletion, but it took me several attempts until they deleted my account. It was deactivated at some time, so I assumed they deleted it. But I still get newsletters from them from time to time and they never sent me an official confirmation email.
It’s just incredibly unprofessional how Sony runs PSN.
inb4: PSN is down again: http://i.imgur.com/TScOD.png
Adrian
I think I will start going back to playing board games…..
Risk is good, so is Monopoly, Axis and Allies, Battleship, Mastermind, Cribbage, and many others.
Maybe we should be nice, and send the Sony executives CandyLand….it might give them some inspiration to get over their hiccups, since they seem to spend their money boozing all the time…..
Decentralize the whole thing. App stores which grab your personal information, centralized servers which try to run everything. Ahh the good old days of diablo and battle.net
Maybe, “Most of our customers don’t even know what a security exploit is. Why should they care that we don’t care?” 😉
If I understand the situation correctly, Sony brings back the password recovery service that only requires an email address and DOB, and it took 2 days for somebody to realize this was a bad thing? In the two days that hundreds of thousands of new passwords were requested, nobody, either inside OR OUTSIDE of Sony, stopped to question that the only two pieces of information required were just handed over to hackers a few weeks ago?
So, somebody please help me out… what piece of this puzzle am I missing? And if what I just described is exactly what happened, why is Sony portrayed as idiots, if nobody else caught on to it either until today?
No competent person would think it was a good idea in the first place.
Because they’re the ones who implemented it and thought it was a good idea.
Maybe no-one is using PSN anymore.
Well actually, lots of people outside Sony *did* realize this, which is why the linked blogpost had been telling people to create a new email address immediately after resetting the password.
But the real news hit when Sony removed the service again and people starting asking why.
Unfortunately, I would guess that the majority of people using PSN are either 1) kids who don’t know any better or 2) 20-30-somethings who sit around all day playing games and could give a shit less about security.
I can’t stand when someone does something wrong and gets caught then refuses to own it. If you screw up just admit it.