Its been almost a week since the PlayStation Network's outage. Although offline functions work fine - users can still play single-player games, watch DVDs and Blu-ray discs, and access stored media - anything else that required connecting to the cloud remains offline for an indefinite period...
What is the PlayStation Network?
Sony's PSN is its online network that connects the PlayStation 3 to the Internet, and to Sony's cloud services. PS3 owners can use the PSN to download new games and demos, buy and rent movies from the PlayStation Store, and tap into Sony's Qirocity cloud-music service.
But the real appeal of the PSN is its ability to facilitate multiplayer games. With no access, you can play the single-player mode of a game like SOCOM 4 just fine—but if you're in the mood to hop online and frag some friends, you're out of luck. You'll need to wait until Sony reinstates the network.
How long will the PlayStation Network (PSN) be down?Could be days, weeks, maybe months...
Has the PSN been hacked?
Yes. Sony referred to one of the reasons for the outage as an "external intrusion," meaning that a group tapped into the network. The hack didn't actually take down the PSN, though -Sony turned it off, as well as Qriocity.
Is my data safe?
No. This question was up in the air until Tuesday, when Sony released a warning and an email to customers warning that it believed that the hack had exposed customer details, including credit-card information.
This is what Sony has to say:
"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
Sony also warned that the compromised information might be used by the hackers themselves or sold to a third party, and that users should be wary. "Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information," Sony said. "If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking."
And, of course, there's the statement issued on April 23: "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve rebuilding 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."
Here's the really unsettling part: when Sony launched its "Sony Tablets" on Monday night in Japan, Sony's top executives didn't even address the issue. Yes, there was the possibility that the PSN outage would become the story, but Sony should have understood that ignoring the issue just prompts more suspicion.
You never really answered the question: How long can we expect the PSN to be down?
Sony addressed the issue in its latest blog update. "We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week." What services are these? Quirocity? The PSN? We think Sony intends to bring back the PSN within a week, but we can't be sure.
If Sony is truly "rebuilding its system," that means new code is being written and tested. What we don't know is the extent of the rebuilding. Does Sony feel that its back-end database servers are vulnerable or were attacked? What about its network infrastructure? Was there a man-in-the-middle attack that stole network passwords? Some have speculated that custom firmware somehow contributed to taking down the system.
Sony issued its rebuilding statement on April 23. Again, it's impossible to say with certainty how long the PSN could be out. At a guess, however, we would say that Sony's PSN should be down about five to eight days after its statement, or anywhere from April 28 until May 1 or 2. We'd say that Sony is shooting for the PSN to be out less than a week, but is leaving itself some wiggle room.
Will Sony issue credits or free games?
Possibly. Since the PSN is a free network, most users haven't been hit in the pocketbook by the outage. That's not true for those that have subscribed to the PlayStation Plus service, however.
Sony's outage also hit as the company was heavily promoting multiplayer-capable games like SOCOM 4, Portal 2, and others.
We could see Sony offer some free DLC for some of the affected multiplayer games, or the option for a credit at the PlayStation Store. The PlayStation Plus service is $17.99 for three months - a month's credit seems to be a logical solution, plus some additional downloads and other goodies for these, Sony's most devoted customers.
Will there be any long-term effects?
Possibly. Microsoft weathered a series of rolling outages during the 2008 holiday season, and customers still remember. But nothing erases a series of bad memories like a good online fragfest.
