Items tagged with playstation network
The Sony PS4 has been around for several years and has sold a massive number of units since launch, easily besting the Xbox One in total sales. The PS4 is nearing the end of its reign as Sony’s most advanced console, but Sony is finally getting around to launching a feature that has been oft-requested by gamers. Sony first announced that the ability to change your Online ID was coming last October. That online ID change service is now available, and that means if gamers initially picked a silly call sign, and now want a new name you can now get one. The online ID can be changed via a web browser for those who find that faster. When the name change feature was first announced, Sony was clear...
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There are a few things that will follow you around for a long time, one of them being bad screen names. If you are a PlayStation gamer and have had a bad PlayStation Network ID for a long time that you have often wished you could change, that change will soon arrive. Rumors have circulated that name changes would be possible, and Sony has now confirmed the rumor. Sony has stated that PS Network gamers will be able to change their PSN IDs starting in early 2019. There is no firm date on when the changes will be possible. If you change your screen name and then decide you want something else, you can change as many times as you want. The caveat is that only the first change is free; after that...
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Sony PlayStation Network Finally Gains Two-Factor Authorization Five Years After Massive Data Breach
At long last, Sony has finally begun work on adding two-factor authentication to its PlayStation Network (PSN) service, a security feature that could have come in handy five years ago when hackers barged their way in resulting in an extended outage. It wasn't Sony's finest moment by a long stretch. The massive data breach compromised the personal information of every PSN user, which at the time totaled more than 77 million registered accounts. Sony had no choice but to pull the service offline while it investigated the situation and rebuilt the service to prevent further embarrassment. While Sony initially hoped to restore service within a week, the outage lasted 23 days. Now five years removed...
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It took a bit of time to weave through all the red tape and get the various paperwork in order, but you can finally take Sony up on its cash back or merchandise settlement offer if you purchased a PlayStation Via handheld console before June 1, 2012, and have not returned the product for a full refund. If so, it's your turn to fill out some paperwork.The settlement agreement is the same that was reached with the FTC back in November. It's in relation to the Vita's "cross-save" functionality and how it was advertised. At the time of the complaint, the cross-save feature only worked with a few PlayStation 3 games, while the pause-and-save feature described in ads varied significantly from game...
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Not all of us are born with an abundance of patience, though sometimes you have no choice but to wait. That applies to the scores of PlayStation Network users who had their data compromised and sat through an extended service outage when hackers infiltrated the service back in 2011. Fast forward to today and you may be able to claim some restitution via a class action lawsuit. As part of the proposed settlement, anyone who had a PSN account, Qriocity account, or an SOE account at any time before May 15, 2011, is eligible to participate. "The proposed settlement offers payments equal to credit balances (if applicable credit balance is $2.00 or more) in inactive accounts, game and online service...
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An 18-year-old man living in the U.K. was picked up and arrested in Southport as part of an investigation into distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that brought down Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) and Microsoft's Xbox Live service on Christmas Day. The investigation is part of a joint effort between U.K. cybercrime authorities and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).The DDoS attacks carried out by members of the hacking group Lizard Squad caused both services to be overwhelmed with online traffic, which disrupted access. Both Sony and Microsoft were forced to shut down their respective online services as they investigated the matter. Earlier this month, another member of...
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Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network were both the targets of DDoS attacks by Lizard Squad during the Christmas holiday. The acts were particularly heinous as Lizard Squad — the group that claimed responsibility for the attacks — picked perhaps the worst time to attack the networks. First of all, it took place during a time when most Microsoft and Sony employees were at home with their families for the holidays instead of working on mission-critical projects in the office. Secondly, people that received shiny new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles for Christmas were unable to get online to play their new games. Lizard Squad justified its actions as a means to prompt both Microsoft...
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It was a very un-merry Christmas for millions of gamers who scored a Microsoft or Sony game console yesterday, or otherwise wanted to partake in some online console gaming, only to find out that both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network had been rendered unusable due to a DDoS attack. Ah, but of all the unlikely heroes, Kim Dotcom swooped in today like ol' St. Nick and struck a deal with Lizard Squad, the hacker group taking responsibility for the DDoS attacks, to back off so that he could play some Destiny. Dotcom took to Twitter to offer the Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) 3,000 lifetime premium Mega accounts worth $99 each. Mega, if you're unaware, is Dotcom's newest online venture -- an encrypted...
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Sony had a huge weekend celebrating the PlayStation’s 20th anniversary with the release of a special edition 20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 and hosting the PlayStation Experience at which the company revealed a plethora of new titles coming to its gaming platforms. However, Sony’s PlayStation Network suffered outages due to denial-of-service attacks over the weekend courtesy of a group claiming to be Lizard Squad. Sony confirmed that the network with a message that stated, “We are aware that users are having issues connecting to PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate.” While the original Lizard Squad Twitter account was finally suspended, a new account is claiming responsibility...
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Good news for PlayStation 4 owners who have yet to subscribe to Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription which gives access to the PlayStation Network. The company announced today that this weekend, PS4 users will have access to the console's online multiplayer for free. Starting on September 26 at 12:00 AM Pacific, and lasting until September 29 at 12:00 AM Pacific, PS4 users will be able to play online with their friends for any game that has a multiplayer campaign or is a multiplayer-only title. This means that games, which have multiplayer campaigns, such as Diablo III, Madden NFL 15, The Last of Us Remastered, Destiny, and FIFA 15 will be available for PS4 users who are not members of...
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During the weekend the gaming industry has been suffering from a barrage of DDoS attacks. Blizzard’s Battle.net, League of Legends, and Sony’s PlayStation Network are just some of the games and services that have experienced unexpected downtime. However, it appears one hacker group is claiming responsibility for all of these attacks and more. A group called Lizard Squad has been claiming responsibility for bringing down Battle.net, League of Legends, NCSoft, and Sony’s PlayStation Network over the past week on its Twitter account. As of the posting of this article, the organization currently claims that it will be bringing down Microsoft’s Xbox Live service too....
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Have you ever found yourself yelling at Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN), "Hey, just take my money!"? Neither have we, but in case you've been frustrated with the available payment options, you'll be happy to know that you can use PayPal to make purchases through PSN (by funding your Wallet). It's a thoughtful addition, especially if you're an active eBay seller that keeps a steady flow of funds in your PayPal account. You'll find the option to use PayPal in the PS Store on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles. It also appears on the Sony Entertainment Network website, though the option all around is limited to a select few territories. They include the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina....
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Sony's been the target of more than one high profile hacker attack in the past few years, so it's understandable if the company is a bit on edge. To underscore that point, Sony Europe recently took the "precautionary measure" of resetting passwords for some PlayStation Network users in which irregularly activity was detected. That's fine and dandy, except that Sony didn't tell its members what it did. "So I've been trying for a good hour or so to try and login on my devices (PS3, Vita, phone app), and they're all saying my login is incorrect," a user posted in Sony Europe's support forum. "My initial reaction was I've been hacked and someone's changed the details, but if the details were changed...
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It's said that nothing is certain but death and taxes, but whomever first uttered those words clearly didn't own a PlayStation. For if that person did, surely he/she would have added 'PlayStation Network downtime' to the list of life's absolute certainties. As it were, that's precisely the case today, as Sony spends the entire day performing routine maintenance. "Regular maintenance is a necessary part of operating a service such as PSN. As part of our efforts to continue to deliver you a world-class online entertainment experience on your PS3 and PS Vita devices, we will be performing maintenance on the network on Thursday, May 24th, starting at approximately 8:00 am PDT / 10:00 am EDT and concluding...
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Surprise, surprise (not really), Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) is down again for more routine maintenance. This has become a regular occurrence that PlayStation 3 gamers have learned (or are learning) to put up with, and this latest bit of downtime is scheduled to last pretty much all day, according to an official blog post by Matthew Harper, Senior Manager for Sony's PlayStation Digital Platforms. "My name is Matthew Harper, and I’m part of the recently-formed PlayStation Digital Platforms Community Management team. Our mission is to keep you better informed about everything that is going on in the wide world of the PlayStation Network, to make your voice heard within the company, and...
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If you own a PlayStation 3 and are addicted to online gaming, it's time to fall in love with the PC all over again. Or read a book or do whatever it is you do when you're not tapping into the PlayStation Network (PSN). Sony is planning to perform some heavy duty maintenance on the PlayStation Network later today that will take the service offline for about 14 hours, and possibly longer. "This significant PSN maintenance period is expected to start at just after noon Pacific and will last for several hours, until approximately 2am Pacific on Monday, March 5," Sony announced in a blog post. "Unlike typical maintenance events, consumers who are already signed-in to PSN will be signed-out, and consumers...
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Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) will cease to exist as of February 7, 2012, but fear not, the service isn't going belly up. It is, however, being renamed Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) which, along with a name change, will bring about changes to the Terms of Service and User Agreement, as well as tweaks to the Privacy Policy, all of which are mandatory if you wish to continue using your merged account. Sony highlighted what it feels are the most important additions and changes to the above mentioned agreements, and they include: New terms for parents of minor, subaccount holders regarding the limitations of chat parental controls. Your reacceptance of the Terms of Service and User Agreement...
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You could almost hear the collective groans from gamers who discovered that Sony's PlayStation Network is offline today. Could it be that Sony is once again the victim of a hacker attack, one in which the real victims are online players who just want to get their gaming groove on? And worse yet, does this mean everyone's accounts have been compromised? Luckily, the answer is 'no'. "PlayStation Network will be offline for routine scheduled maintenance on Thursday, January 19th from approximately 8AM until 9PM PST," Sony announced in a blog post. Phew! During that time, you'll be unable to access the PlayStation Store on PS3, PSP, and Media Go; PlayStation Network Account Management; PlayStation...
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Someone needs to send Sony the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" because the company clearly isn't getting it. We can point to the whole rootkit fiasco, but who needs to look back that far when Sony's shenanigans never seem to stop? Following that big mess with the security breach to its PlayStation Network (PSN), Sony is trying to force PS3 owners to waive their rights to join a class action lawsuit, even if such a request might not be enforceable. Here's what you'll find nestled in the latest mandatory system update: ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS...
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The Spanish National Police announced today that they've captured three individuals connected to the online hacktivist group Anonymous. According to the policía, the three are linked to attacks on multiple Spanish banks, one Italian energy company, Visa, MasterCard, and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Columbia, and New Zealand. Additionally, the police originally stated that the group participated in the April attacks that crippled Sony's PlayStation Network, but later remarks from police chief Manuel Vazquez indicate this was untrue. Government officials are said to be investigating whether the trio has committed other crimes of international importance such as...
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Here we are going on week 4 of the well documented PlayStation Network outage, and as it turns out, some PSN gamers would rather throw in the towel than wait for Sony to restore its network. According to Edge Magazine, PlayStation 3 owners are trading in their consoles for cash or Xbox 360 consoles. In addition, sales of PSN points cards are down, and so are pre-orders for PS3 titles. "In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades," a store manager at a major UK retailer speaking on condition of anonymity told Edge. “However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 percent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50...
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Sony has sent an open letter to Congress detailing and defending its actions in the wake of multiple (successful) hack attempts over the past two weeks. The company previously declined to attend a hearing scheduled in the wake of its data theft debacle. The head of that hearing, Mary Bono Mack, tore the company up one side and down the other for its shortcomings; this recent missive is an apparent attempt to save face. Ironically for Sony, the company's data was stolen right around the time period it brushed off any concerns that Anonymous' attacks could negatively impact its security or systems. Faced with irrefutable evidence that its servers were riddled with security flaws, Sony has instead...
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