Day 6: Sony PlayStation Network down due to hackers
[Updated story: Sony admits hackers have stolen user info]
It’s been almost a full week and the PlayStation Network is still down.
The network, which has been down since Wednesday and allows 75 million users to play games with friends over the Internet, went down several times in February and March. The network is also used to deliver downloadable games and other static media. Sony’s Qriocity (pronounced “curiousity”) service, which provides streaming video, music and games, is also down.
Sony has not explained what happened exactly, but hackers are apparently behind the recent outage.
Take that hackers!
Late Friday, Sony said “An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network … .”
External intrusion = Attack by hackers.
When will online gaming resume? Late Monday, a Sony spokesman said “I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time.”
Protecting the network from hackers has been a lot more difficult than Sony first predicted. Thursday night, Sony said it might only take a full day or two.
Saturday, Sony said “we are working around the clock to bring [the network] online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.”
The hacking group Anonymous, which some had thought may be behind Sony’s problems, say it’s not them. On the group’s Facebook page someone wrote, “ATTENTION: For everyone coming here complaining about the PSN or inquiring about it, We Do Not Know What Happened. This is not the work of Anonymous.”
Sony’s problems are also unrelated to Amazon’s crash, which has crippled many popular websites and online services including Reddit, Foursquare, Quora and Hootsuite.
This is a big blow, especially through the long holiday weekend. Some games can only be played online, and many of the more popular games, such as the “Call of Duty” series, usually have hundreds of thousands of players logging into online firefights.
So, hang up your M16 there won’t be any “Call of Duty” deathmatches until Sony fixes this thing.
As someone says below, sometimes “you get what you don’t pay for.” Time to fire up the Xbox 360.
* Check the PlayStation blog for the latest updates.
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1,922 comments Add your comment
nicole
April 25th, 2011
2:27 pm
i really need to add somemore ppl on my friends list for call of duty but they have to be as good as me lol
Nightwinger
April 25th, 2011
2:28 pm
well geez. might as well play my wii cuz last time i did was when the industrial revolution happened
nicole
April 25th, 2011
2:29 pm
if u think u are good….hit me up email me at mizzkitty117@yahoo.com
aiden cooper
April 25th, 2011
2:54 pm
im fed up of people saying that they are turning to xbox 360. on the xbox server you can allready play online but the microsoft corparation rips u off for something yuve already got. the geohot guy was punished for what he did and then he decides that he win create a bigger group to attack sony back. geohot is being childish he should be punished. thats y xbox is so cheap. they decide to rip people off with internet that they already have. i know this isnt geohot but still just because ps3 gets cut off from internet for some time doesnt mean u ar gonna leave. xbox still lag just like ps3 so the internet is no different. we pay for quality, xbox pay for childishness
doug
April 25th, 2011
2:59 pm
don’t understand all the whining… gaming isn’t everything… sure I love to play online, but this is a relatively new concept… I just think everyone is spoiled and doesn’t really know how to entertain themselves… good greif spend some time with your friends and family… go outside and see the actual not the virtual world. PSN will be back on soon enough, and hopefully they can resolve their issues, but until then… complaining will get us nowhere. I’ve been a big fan of PS since the begining. NEVER owned an xbox, but I have played xbox live and I think it sucks. Their connection was crap compared to PSN. It took over an hour to get all of us in a lobby to play GOW and I wasn’t all that impressed. I will wait patiently for PSN to come back on and be thankfull I bought the right system. I have owned it for over 6 yrs and it hasn’t let me down yet… and I don’t understand the problems with netflix… mine works fine… just let it try to log in… when it doesn’t just circle back and netflix will connect… mine does it everytime
BuzzBuzz
April 25th, 2011
3:07 pm
Sony can’t help that their PS3 Network was hacked. But I do agree it’s been down long enough. Don’t they realize that most of their games are geared for online use. I’m thinking about going to an XBox 360 myself. If they don’t get the network running soon, I afraid that PS3 may become a thing of the past.
PSN fan
April 25th, 2011
3:16 pm
@George – go for it, trade your ps3 in for an xbox – that’ll show Sony, lmao. some fan you are.
while the wait sucks, I’m glad Sony is fixing it and i hope they string up every single one of those scumbag hackers. i wouldn’t play an xbox if someone gave me one, long live the playstation!
ROBO
April 25th, 2011
3:24 pm
ITS MONDAY THER BACK TWO WORK SONY TEC DONT WORK ON HOLIDAY ITS THE$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
FedUp
April 25th, 2011
3:25 pm
GIVE US A TIME SONY, SET A DATE. Cause patientce is running low, but xboxs are not. Last day of waiting for me. If sony doesn’t properly inform, im gone.
johndoe99
April 25th, 2011
3:26 pm
whats with all the comments saying its not Sony’s fault. They’ve been hacked twice already, and with all the resources they have at there disposal, they should have a system thats more secure, what ecver there doing now they better make sure it cant be hacked this time.