

Sony Shuts Down PlayStation Network Indefinitely - thurgoodx
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/04/26/sony-shuts-down-playstation-network-indefinitely/

======
morganpyne
A moderator from PSX-Scene.com gave an interesting in-depth explanation as to
what is going on with the PlayStation Network on a Reddit AMA recently:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/gx6o4/im_a_moderator...](http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/gx6o4/im_a_moderator_over_at_psxscenecom_the_real/)

His take (and he admits it is speculation but it sounds quite plausible) was
that a custom PS3 firmware called Rebug gave Playstations Developer-level
access to the network, which allowed you to do a whole lot of things without
much authentication (input from dev. consoles was trusted far too blindly).
This firmware permitted all kinds of shenanigans, up to and including allowing
credit cards without validation.

I haven't seen any official comment from Sony on the topic, but there is
further speculation that a lot of stored information may have been compromised
and that wholesale theft via unvalidated CCs has gone on. Quite a serious
breach, and a very poor show on behalf of Sony to blindly trust user input
like that from dev. consoles if this turns out to be true.

~~~
swaits
So, a non-Sony employee, on a non-Sony forum, admittedly "speculates" what
appears to be a bunch of garbage nonsense, and that's newsworthy?

~~~
Groxx
... while providing supporting evidence, in the face of Sony's utter silence
aside from "down now, up when it's up"? Yes. That makes their link by _far_
the most informative thing I've seen on this to date.

------
Groxx
"indefinitely" is linkbait more than anything. It's not "indefinitely" in
terms of "forever", which is how it's usually used - it's "an un-specified
amount of time".

It's technically correct, but when you hear about something "shutting down
indefinitely" you don't think "oh, that's all right, they'll be back up soon".

~~~
rhizome
The funny thing is that it's not "technically correct," it's _actually_
correct and used properly here (both prescriptively and descriptively). Your
criticism has to do with the word being misused _elsewhere_ when people or
companies avoid using the word "forever."

~~~
Groxx
"forever" is not mis-use, it's also correct _and_ it's the more-common usage
by far (in my experience). Let me google that for you:
[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=define%3Aindefinitely)

~~~
rhizome
Your linchpin is anecdotal. "Forever" is a second definition after
"indefinite." It's not really that important, though, I was just trying to
provide some insight to the GP as pertains to Sony's statement.

------
ares2012
Wow. Considering that you can't play Netflix on your PS3 without the
Playstation Network operational and the article on the front page about
Netflix being bigger than cable companies, I wonder how much this is affecting
Netflix traffic. I realize you pay for Netflix whether or not PSN is working
but then who has responsibility that you can't stream?

~~~
netflixworks
Actually I can still use Netflix while PSN is down, it does ask me to sign in
twice but I can just press O after it fails and then Netflix works without an
issue.

~~~
GrandMasterBirt
Haha! Xbox wins. Well... kind of. I still won't buy one or pay for online...
but well... no. I just use ps3 as a glorified netflix player. HA!

------
chc
Wow. This has to be something bigger than just "Hacker brought down some PSN
computers." Sony surely has disaster recovery plans for something as simple as
a large swath of computers going down (for any reason), so it sounds like they
must suspect something is fundamentally very wrong with the network itself.

------
bpfh
Whether it be due to Anonymous or load from newly released hit games, PSN has
been awfully flaky lately. Usually when PSN returns with a helpful integer
error message, I hit Twitter and #psn to see if it's just me.

Frustrated with this, I took a few hours and wrote <http://isthepsndown.com/>.
Obviously it's pretty useless at the moment, PSN being down wholesale, but I
am hoping in the future it would save a few clicks whenever PSN barfs again.

~~~
ctide
Why force a click to see the result? Seems like a good way to ensure you get
bogus data.

~~~
bpfh
Good question. That's why I threw in the Haven't Tried option, but you might
be right.

~~~
cookiecaper
He is right. I would remove the "Haven't Tried" option and reposition the
elements so that the status report is prominent and the option for user input
is secondary.

~~~
bpfh
Just implemented this change, and I find it much improved. Thanks.

Now the next thing would be to figure out appropriate network metrics to
monitor the PSN server. I suppose portscanning Sony would be considered a bad
idea though.

------
nodata
I bought a PS3 with Linux support and PSN access. Now I don't have either.
Maybe they could randomly disable my controllers next.

------
swlkr
I don't want to sound like a fan boy or anything but I can't recall a time
when Xbox live was down for more than a few hours.

~~~
netflixworks
Here you go
[http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/01/xbo...](http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/01/xbox_live_holiday_outages_prompts_class_action_law.html)

The complaint describes the December outages -- chronicled on blogs and
elsewhere -- that kept people from "accessing online play for several weeks.
... Xbox Live continues to deny subscribers access and has even issued
apologies for their failure to correct server problems."

~~~
Groxx
Know what the outcome of that lawsuit was? Press tends to follow the
beginning, not the end, I'm having trouble finding anything :/

~~~
netflixworks
I have no clue but I found this article
<http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/01/lawyer-explains/> in which the lawyer
explains they don't want money, they just want Microsoft to fix the problem so
I guess nothing came out of the lawsuit.

Here is the suit if you want to read it and do more research (PDF):

[http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/files/library/xboxlive01...](http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/files/library/xboxlive0108suit.pdf)

------
neworbit
Man, I feel old, I remember when Sony was The Brand Name in consumer
electronics. Between rootkits and intrusive behavior and this sort of thing...
I can't think of the last time I bought something with the Sony brand on it.
(To be fair, it was probably either a DVD... or a DVD burner.)

~~~
Groxx
I've returned a couple of their batteries for dying while under warranty.
Beyond that, I avoid Sony like the plague. Hardware, software, videos, music,
_everything_.

Bring back the company that made the Walkman, a cheap, DRM-free, durable music
player, and maybe I'll change my mind.

