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PlayStation Network Still Down, Little End In Sight
May 9, 2011 02:19 PM

Last week, Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, held a press conference updating the gaming community on the external intrusion plaguing Sony and its users. After a lengthy apology, Hirai revealed that they would finally restore online services within a week. Eight days later, however, the PSN is still down with little end in sight.

Sony stopped its Network and Qriocity services on April 20th after they discovered their systems were being attacked. Through a series of blog posts, Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media, gave day-to-day updates on the growing situation. It was eventually revealed that hackers not only attacked the company’s network but also stole customer data ranging from names to credit card information.

In response to the possibility of endangering millions of PSN users, Sony was forced to shut down and rebuild its entire network. Unfortunately, it is taking a lot longer than previously announced. On April 21st, Seybold said the network would be back up and running within “a full day or two”. However, April 23rd came, and users were still unable to log in. Then, April 30th marked Hirai’s press conference and the announcement that some, but not all, PlayStation Network and Qriocity services would start rolling out region by region. This past Friday, however, Seybold wrote:

“When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week. We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system.”

This might be related to the discovery that Sony Online Entertainment was also hacked into, and they want to be sure no other services are in danger. It is also possible that they heard many of your outcries about how foolish it would be to roll out online services and give free PSN Plus accounts without a fully functional store. Or, Seybold is telling the truth; however, a part of me remains doubtful. After all, they already knew that millions of PlayStation user identities are in danger. I can not think of anything more severe. Plus, Seybold claims they are working around the clock to fix the network. If it has taken them twenty days of constant work and they are still unable to strengthen their network security, I seriously worry how long it will take to before PSN users can log back in. Regardless of the reason, Sony’s reputation is in shambles. If they are unable to give a concrete restoration date within the next few days or weeks, they may never recover.

Links: Sony PlayStation

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