Topic: PSN = Privacy? Security? Never!

[broodwars]

PlayStation Plus is garbage. It's the same thing as regular PSN, but you might get to download a demo a few days earlier, or get some bullshit DLC or something. It's useless, and their "gift" is a slap in the face to all customers. Ignorance and arrogance go hand in hand, btw.

PS Plus isn't garbage.  Its problem is that its value is highly dependent on what discounts, what free titles, and what exclusive demos come out every week.  Sony could easily limit their costs on this by simply not putting out anything of value for discount or free download during this 1 month bonus.  Or they could actually treat this as a marketing opportunity and put loads of stuff people care about out on the service.  It's hard to say which way Sony will go.

[NWR_insanolord]

It would be in Sony's best interest to make the service as appealing as possible during that period. A lot of people who weren't sold on PS Plus will be trying it out of curiosity, and this is Sony's chance to win them over and turn them into paying customers of the service. I got it for three months a while back to get the preview version of the Hulu Plus app, and I thought it was okay, but didn't resubscribe at the end of that. I'd been considering trying it again, as a couple of the features are interesting to me, especially the automatic background downloading of system updates, so this is nice for me.

[BranDonk Kong]

Listen to Metallica's Holier Than Thou. James Hetfield says they go hand in hand, therefore it is the truth. GeoHot, while arrogant himself, is pretty dead-on with his statements about this though.

[broodwars]

It would be in Sony's best interest to make the service as appealing as possible during that period. A lot of people who weren't sold on PS Plus will be trying it out of curiosity, and this is Sony's chance to win them over and turn them into paying customers of the service. I got it for three months a while back to get the preview version of the Hulu Plus app, and I thought it was okay, but didn't resubscribe at the end of that. I'd been considering trying it again, as a couple of the features are interesting to me, especially the automatic background downloading of system updates, so this is nice for me.

The background update downloading is a godsend, since most of my firmware updates and patches now install when I'm otherwise not using the system.  To be frank, that feature should be a normal feature of the system rather than a PSN+ Perk.  And like I said, I agree that it would be in Sony's best public relations and advertising interest to really bring out the goods during this month of free PSN+.  I just wonder whether Sony will actually do that, or if they'll try to minimize the damages by putting out things for free or discounted that most people don't care about anyway.

Something else that bugs me is how they're going to do this "free content".  If it's tied into your PSN+ subscription like the free PSN+ software is, the stuff is useless once your free month is over so it's not much of a "gift".  Hopefully, they just price whatever it is as $0.00 normally so whatever you download you get to keep regardless of what you do with your PSN+ subscription.

I'm also curious if this whole planned physical movement of the network is going to result in faster download times, since that was a major complaint about the network for years.  It took hours to download multi-GB files before the network went down, and I'm on high-speed internet.

[MegaByte]

I also wonder how it affects me, who has a PSN account, but never had a console.

[broodwars]

I also wonder how it affects me, who has a PSN account, but never had a console.

How'd that happen?  Did you just create an account on the website or something?  I would assume given that these gifts are account-based that you would have the same benefits as the rest of us once your account was associated with a console (or PSP, though I've never seen a free PSP game on PSN+ and don't remember any discounts, either).

[MegaByte]

Yeah. I think it had something to do with me being signed up for Playstation Underground in the past.

[Chozo Ghost]

Whatever the free game or whatever ends up being, its going to really suck for those who already own it.

[King of Twitch]

That's a good attitude to have, Mr Pessimismpants.

[BranDonk Kong]

SOE's servers have been shut down now because...TADA! SOE got hacked too! Way to go, SONY!

There's more important stuff going on right now though.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Whoever it is isn't gonna give Sony a break.

Sony better hope they shut down PSN fast enough to block any attempts to steal any sensitive information and they better also add some more armed security around their servers in Japan. Maybe Nintendo will loan them a few Ninjas for hire if they ask nicely.

[Chozo Ghost]

So it isn't even back up yet and already its been hacked again? What the hell?!

[Shaymin]

That's Sony Online Entertainment - the folks what brought you EverQuest - not the PSN itself.

[BranDonk Kong]

But it's the service used for DC Universe Online (PC and PS3 versions), and many other games from other companies. SONY fucking sucks.

[Chozo Ghost]

Wow. So first the PS3 was hacked and then PSN was hacked and now this. It kinda makes you wonder whats going to be next.

[BranDonk Kong]

Technically the PS3 being hacked probably didn't have too much to do with the others, since a PS3 was not involved in the hack (according to SONY), though it did show many red flags about PSN in general since you could see that all of your information was sent back and forth, unencrypted. SONY has known this for years, and it's been public knowledge for months, yet, they did absolutely nothing until someone took advantage of the lack of security. Douchebags.

[Chozo Ghost]

I didn't mean to imply the hacking of the PS3 had anything to do with these other two events. I was just pointing out how this incompetence over at Sony seems to be systemic because it seems to be the case with every product and service they have. Oh, and the PSP had also been hacked, but that's very old news.

[BranDonk Kong]

Word. Wasn't trying to put words in your mouth (though it may seem that way, and I apologize), just further explaining for people that don't want to read 26 pages of epic fail.

[BranDonk Kong]

Hey, look! SONY fired 205 employees right before PSN got hacked...employees who worked on SONY's online infrastructure...who were fired...exactly 2 weeks before SONY shut down PSN...which was their last day on the job...

[Chozo Ghost]

It comes as no surprise to me that Sony treats its employees like just a number. They treat the consumers that way, so it makes sense the employees get treated like crap as well. Maybe one or a few disgruntled employees is responsible for this attack? They would certainly have both the means and the motive to do it.

[BranDonk Kong]

Oh, even more good news - Sony loses another 12,700 credit card numbers, 24.6 million accounts. That's over 100 million accounts. WAY TO GO!

[broodwars]

Oh, even more good news - Sony loses another 12,700 credit card numbers, 24.6 million accounts. That's over 100 million accounts. WAY TO GO!

From what I've been reading on Joystiq and whatnot, Sony is connecting this attack to the one on PSN, saying it happened in the same time window.  And most of the credit card data is circa 2007 or so, so the cards are likely to be expired by now.  To be honest, I don't really give a damn about this hack since I never played anything ran by SoE (though I did come close to checking out DC Universe Online, so I guess I dodged a bullet there).  It does, however, just continue to endear me to the oh-so-lovable hacker community.   

[Chozo Ghost]

It does, however, just continue to endear me to the oh-so-lovable hacker community.   

So one or a few hackers do this and you blame the entire hacking community? I believe people should be judged as individuals and not as groups. GeoHot recently weighed in on the PSN hacking and he condemned it and he said it makes hackers look bad. I believe he is one of the good ones. But apparently to you they're all bad no matter what.

[broodwars]

It does, however, just continue to endear me to the oh-so-lovable hacker community.   

So one or a few hackers do this and you blame the entire hacking community? I believe people should be judged as individuals and not as groups. GeoHot recently weighed in on the PSN hacking and he condemned it and he said it makes hackers look bad. I believe he is one of the good ones. But apparently to you they're all bad no matter what.

Did I say they were all bad?  I said quite simply (sarcastically) that crap like this doesn't endear me to hackers in general, which it doesn't (and, mind you, I have stated before that I don't like hackers in general).  If these guys aren't simply thieves but have some kind of agenda as well, they don't help it with these actions.  All they're doing is hurting innocent customers.  And regardless, they make the non-malevolent hackers look horrible.

[Chozo Ghost]

Well, after what Brandogg posted about the employees being fired it casts some doubt on this being the work of hackers. Perhaps it was the result of disgruntled fired employees?