Showing posts sorted by date for query PSN. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query PSN. Sort by relevance Show all posts

VOGH Exclusive: Xbox Live Outage Caused For Networking Misconfiguration, Not Hacker Attack

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/18/2013 06:08:00 pm

Microsoft Said Xbox Live Outage Caused For Networking Misconfiguration During Routine Maintenance, Not Hacker Attack 

Xbox Live -one of the world's most popular and usually very reliable gaming network which rarely has unexpected outages, nor does Microsoft ever take it down for any extended period of time. But accident occurs, and it happened in last Sunday. The software giant and the developer of Xbox - Microsoft has reported a significant Xbox Live outage, rendering the service unavailable since earlier last 13th afternoon, smack in the middle of the peak weekend usage period. The outage is preventing users from signing in to Xbox Live, blocking access to the online services normally available through the console. While acknowledging the issue, on their official Xbox Live Status page Microsoft said “There is still an issue members are having signing in to Xbox LIVE, we greatly appreciate you sticking it out with us while we work as hard as we can to get this problem fixed. Keep checking back here every 30 minutes for another update on our progress.” This update came from Microsoft at 3:30 Pacific time on 13th of April. As soon as this story get spotted, several hikes rises. Among this buzz, it was a few unnamed hacker who took credit of the Xbox outage, while declaring that a cyber attack. Another buzz which just got spread so quickly, was that the outage of Xbox Live network has been caused by hacker collective Anonymous.  Here we must have to say that those buzz have some solid reasons as couple of months ago Windows Azure faced an organized cyber attack which effected the service of Azure storage, Xbox Live and 52 other. And that outage or in other word service interruption stays for 12 long hours. But unlike earlier, this time the issue get resolved immediately. Within one hour all the service get restored and came back to its normal order. On the same Xbox Live Status page Microsoft said “If you were one of the members who was having issues signing in to Xbox LIVE, good news! This issue has been fixed! Thank you so much for your patience during this time, feel free to go enjoy your favorite games and content!”
So far we have discussed about the story of the outage and it's restoration. Now we will talk about the cause of this interruption. As I have said earlier that the rumor of hacker's attack was there which was claiming responsibility of the Xbox Live outage. But in reality it was not due to cyber attack but some internal network problems. In their official respond of the situation and those buzz Microsoft completely dines all those rumors and said  "The Xbox Live service outage on 13 April resulted from networking misconfiguration during routine maintenance and was in no way related to false claims of hacking the service." 
While talking about Xbox outage, we would like to remind you that - another world famous gaming console 'PlayStation' had fallen victim to cyber attacks. It was Anonymous who hit Sony PSN and caused massive outage, data leak and many other devastating damages. 







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Sony Playstaion Vita is Vulnerable to Hacking !!

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 9/09/2012 01:00:00 am

Sony Playstaion Vita is Vulnerable to Hacking !!

Sony has always been the worst luck when it has come to hacking and preventing themselves from victimizing their system. Today a Gaming community named 'NeoGAF' said Sony's Playstaion Vita has allegedly been hacked. According to a coder and developer Yifan Lu there is a weakness that could lead to the hacking of the Vita.  Yifanlu started a new project called Usermode Vita Loader (UVLoader), it will be a homebrew loader for the PSV, basically. The project is allegedly based on a PS Vita exploit found by Yifan Lu, but no details have been revealed. At this stage only a few lines of code have been written. Being in such an early stage, there is no release date and it doesn't work, but Yifan Lu is actively seeking developers to assist in the project. Lu said he would be updating details on his personal blog. 
Almost anyone who is involved or knows of the gaming & security industry knows that the relation between Sony and hackers are not healthy at all. Since last year the battle between hacktivist Anonymous, Lulzsec and Sony is running. Hackers have penetrated Sony's PSN network and stolen millions of user personal information. Later Sony was forced to shutdown its entire network & apologized for the whole massacre. Not only PSN, also Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Several Sony's official website from different countries fallen victim to the hackers. Even last month hackers from Anonymous claimed to have breached PSN once again which affected more than 10 million users. Later Sony denies the hack. 






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LulzSec Hacker 'Raynaldo Rivera' Arrested Over Sony Pictures Hack

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/30/2012 01:39:00 am

LulzSec Hacker 'Raynaldo Rivera' Arrested Over Sony Pictures Hack

Last year hackers have targeted Sony many times.  Hacktivist Anonymous, Lulzsec have penetrated Sony's PSN network and stolen millions of user personal information. Later Sony was forced to shutdown its entire network & apologized for the whole massacre. Not only PSN, also Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Several Sony's official website from different countries fallen victim to the hackers.  But in 2012 all the key members of LulzSec, who was mainly responsible for attack on Sony get busted one by one. Among them we can take the name of Jeremy Hammond, Ryan Ackroyd, Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis & so on. In the last move another hacker from LulzSec has been arrested in connection with an attack on Sony Pictures in June last year. A 20-year-old man 'Raynaldo Rivera' surrendered to FBI agents on Tuesday for his alleged hacking of Sony Pictures. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
The arrest comes shortly after a judge postponed the sentencing of LulzSec ringleader Hector Xavier Monsegur, known by his nickname "Sabu," for his continued cooperation in the investigation. Monsegur provided information to the FBI, leading to the arrests of one American man and four in the U.K. in March. 
Rivera allegedly used a proxy server to hide his real IP address and used a SQL injection attack against Sony, according the indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday. The type of attack involves the input of commands into web-based forms to see if the backend database will yield information. Rivera, who went by the online nicknames "neuron," "royal" and "wildicv," allegedly distributed Sony's information to other LulzSec members, who publicized it on the @LulzSec Twitter account, the indictment said. Damages to Sony exceeded US$5,000.
Prosecutors allege Rivera worked with Cody Kretsinger, who was indicted in Sept. 2011 for the same attacks on Sony. Kretsinger allegedly provided the coupon codes along with email addresses and passwords for an extensive data release by LulzSec on June 2, 2011. Kretsinger pleaded guilty in April and is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 25, according to the FBI.



-Source (BBC, PCW)







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PSN Hacked Again By Anonymous! 10 Million Users Affected [Sony Denis The Hack]

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/16/2012 05:46:00 am

PSN Hacked Again By Anonymous! 10 Million Users Affected [Sony Denis The Hack]

Oh! no again Sony Play Station Network faced cyber attack. Guess who was behind this??? Yes this time also hacker collective Anonymous have breached the PSN and stolen more than ten million account details (Email-id & encrypted passwords). Anonymous announced the hack on its Twitter account on Wednesday (though that tweet has since been removed). 

That tweet has claimed that yet again Anonymous have broken into PlayStation Network and has a 50 gigabyte database of email accounts and their passwords – this would put more than ten million accounts at risk. This would be a huge blow to Sony if Anonymous has in fact completed a successful PSN hack and PlayStation Network breach. If PSN has been breached millions of users personal information, including credit cards, would be in the hands of potentially malicious users.
However note that Sony completely denies the hack. The official twitter account of PSN says- "We can confirm that the recent claim that PSN was illegally hacked & that customer PWs and email addresses were accessed is completely false".

According to Kotaku reports that the list in the Pastebin doc is a copy of a seemingly unrelated list of email addresses from March 2012, called "Email accs! // universe security sucks." The PSN hack, in other words, appears to be a rumor that didn't turn out to be true.But still we have to wait for Sony's official response about the whole matter. 
Since last year the battle between hacktivist Anonymous, Lulzsec and Sony is running. Hackers have penetrated Sony's PSN network and stolen millions of user personal information. Later Sony was forced to shutdown its entire network & apologized for the whole massacre. Not only PSN, also Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Several Sony's official website from different countries fallen victim to the hackers. 




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Zappos.com Server Compromised, 24 Million Customer Details Stolen

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 1/17/2012 01:24:00 am


US-based online shoe and apparel shop Zappos has beacme another victim of cyber criminals. The Zappos authority has confirmed this recent breach. Immediately Zappos told their 24 million users to reset their passwords. The security breach by an unknown party or parties through one of the company's servers in Kentucky is said to have exposed the private data of the Amazon.com subsidiary's more than 24 million customers.
In an email sent to customers, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh said that information that may have been accessed in the breach included customer names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, telephone numbers and the last four digits of credit cards used, as well as "cryptographically scrambled" versions of site passwords. The database that contains customer's full credit card details and other payment data "was not affected or accessed", added Hsieh. As a security precaution, Zappos.com has reset and expired customer passwords; customers who use the same or a similar password on other sites are advised to change those as well.
"We've spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It's painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident," Hsieh's e-mail said The company says that it is cooperating with law enforcement and that an investigation is currently taking place. Customers of 6pm.com, which is owned by Zappos, are also affected.
In 2011 we have seen  several cases. Sony, PSN, City Bank, CSDN, Square Enix, Maple story and many more became the victim of cyber attack.


-Source (The-H)

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Square Enix Server Hacked, More Than 1.8 Million Gamers Accounts Compromised

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 12/18/2011 08:59:00 pm


Square Enix the famous franchise for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest compromised. The Square Enix Authority reported that a hacker gained unauthorized access to one of their servers thus the attacker managed to access the personal information of 1.8 million gamers in the US and Japan. Though the company spokes man claimed that no credit card information was compromised in this attack. The video game industry has been the target of several hacker attacks this year. Few days ago 13 million MapleStory players personal data was also stolen. It was one of the largest cyber attack happened in South Korea. Earlier such phenomena took place in Sony PSN breaching case, there more than 93K user details ware compromised. 
In an exclusive report it is demonstrated that  the target of the attack was a free fan site called Square Enix Members. Officials at Square Enix noticed the unauthorized access on December 12 and subsequently shut the site down to investigate. Members of the site register using their email addresses but some enter additional information like names, addresses and phone numbers. A spokesperson for Square Enix said no credit card information is stored on the server.
Those affected include 1 million users from Japan and 800,000 gamers in the US. As of writing, the Square Enix Members site remains offline, instead redirecting visitors to a page explaining the breach and actions the company is taking moving forward. The message indicates that the suspension will continue for a few days until the security team completes their investigation and counter-measures are in place.



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Konami Updates Security System To Stop Hackers

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 11/30/2011 05:08:00 pm


Gaming giant Konami upgraded its security system to stop hackers. The Authority was in hurry to implement their system because they keep in mind that how Sony was compromised, PSN breached and also couple of days before 13 million MapleStory Players info was stolen and so on. So Konami no longer wants to keep their users in danger. So  In a pre-emptive strike against cyber criminals, Konami is to adopt Digipass online security for e-Amusement Gate and its Konami Style shopping service.
In a press release today, Digipass owner Vasco said "Cybercriminals have a real economic incentive to acquire online gaming accounts as it offers a good return for relatively low risks.
"With fraud statistics on the rise, game developer Konami realized the need to implement a security solution for its community site e-Amusement Gate and its online shopping channel Konami Style."
The press release explains how consumers will be protected by using a one-button authenticator to access Konami's services.
"The company implemented VASCO's VACMAN Controller authentication back-end software in combination with DIGIPASS technology allowing its customers to log-on securely to Konami's online services," it reads.
"Customers can choose for DIGIPASS GO 6 one-button authenticator KONAMI one-time password service. VASCO's strong authentication provides a solid defence against keyloggers and identity theft and adds an additional security layer offering Konami's customers adequate protection." 


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Sony Again Under Massive Attack, 93K Accounts Compromised

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 10/12/2011 05:45:00 pm


Sony's online services have been the target of another large-scale attack. In a press release, Sony said that attackers made multiple attempts to intrude into users' Sony online service accounts. Apparently, the attacks targeted the Playstation Network (PSN), the Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) between 7 and 10 October. 

According to Official Press Release of Sony:-
"Sony Network Entertainment International LLC and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have detected a large amount of unauthorized sign-in attempts on PlayStation®Network (PSN), Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) services. We discovered these attempts and have taken steps to mitigate the activity.
Less than one tenth of one percent of our PSN, SEN and SOE consumers may have been affected. There were approximately 93,000 accounts (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts. As a preventative measure, we will be sending email notifications to these account holders and will be requiring secure password resets or informing consumers of password reset procedures.
Credit card numbers associated with these accounts are not at risk as a result of these unauthorized attempts. Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are continuing to investigate the extent of unauthorized activity on any of these accounts.
These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or sources. These were unauthorized attempts to verify valid user accounts on our services using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords. Between October 7 - 10 US Pacific Daylight Time, we confirmed that these were unauthorized attempts, and took steps to thwart this activity. "


-News Source (Sony Corporation)




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Why does Sony getting hacked for multiple times (full report)

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/09/2011 07:01:00 pm


Since the April Play Station Network breach that exposed over 100 million user accounts, Sony has been hacked more than 10 times. Sony Pictures,Sony Europe, Sony BMG Greece, Sony Thailand,Sony Music Japan, Sony Ericcson Canada, and others, have all been the target of attacks. Sony has had to contend with intense scrutiny from media, disgruntled users and lawmakers, with everyone asking the company how it could let such a breach happen. Sony has apologized repeatedly and said that the original attack was a highly professional, criminal cyber attack aimed at stealing credit card numbers. Other experts have said that Sony simply didn't have its security act together and that the attack was likely far simpler. Now, critics are wondering what exactly the motivation might be behind the continued hacks. While the initial PlayStation Network breach was the largest of the hacks to date, Sony's cyber attack problem has continued due to both inconsistent security across Sony's systems and the rise of new groups of hackers interested less in punishing Sony than in showing off their ability to breach the company's defenses, experts say.

Some analysts say Sony's security woes started when the company pressed charges against 20 year-old hacker, George Hotz, who reverse-engineered Sony’s PlayStation 3 so that it could run unapproved third-party applications. Sony responded by suing Hotz, a move that reportedly infuriated many in the hacker community. Many experts say the attack on the PlayStation Network in April could have been an act of vilgilante justice resulting directly or indirectly from Sony's lawsuit against Hotz.

"Sony's perceived abuse of the legal system in targeting reverse-engineer George Hotz infuriated hacker groups," said Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET, an IT security firm. Abrams also noted that even before the Hotz incident, Sony had drummed up "significant antipathy" as the result of a 2005 scandal involving Sony CDs that automatically installed a rootkit that made users' computers vulnerable to attack.
The PlayStation Network attack appears to have set off an avalanche of follow-ups.

"Other hackers and hacking groups realized they could jump on the bandwagon and break into other Sony properties and get in the news," said Richard Wang, manager of Sophos Labs, a security vendor. "Really anything that has the Sony brand on it has become a target for someone trying to make a name for themselves or trying to prove they can break into the website."

Fred Cate, director of the Center for Applied Security Research at the University of Indiana, said the first PlayStation Network breach may have tempted hackers by revealing Sony as open to attack. "There's sort of a pile-on effect," Cate said. "Once you hear that there's a vulnerable network out there, other folks start trying. Sony's now a new target of interest."
Other hackers seem to have joined up for reasons other than political or monetary gain. Sites like has sonybeen hacked this week.com demonstrate a curious mixture of genuine curiosity and weary cultural saturation.

"Prior to the PSN hack, the loosely organized Anonymous group had waged war against Sony, reflecting the opinion of a significant share of netizens who got infuriated by Sony's corporate attitude," said Guillaume Lovet, a senior manager of the threat response team at Fortinet. "But now, from being a target for opinion reasons only, it also became a target 'just for the lulz,' for [hacker group] lulzsecurity and others."
"The outcome," Lovet said, "is more attackers, thus more successful hacks."

Some critics have questioned whether Sony's security efforts both before and after the initial breaches have been adequate. Sony has since promised to boost its security systems and review existing procedures. Still, according to experts, many of the attacks used to breach Sony's sites are fairly basic hacks that the company could easily have protected against.

"They seemingly have an almost anarchistic approach to global network security, with no visible coordination of security practices across Internet properties," said Abrams. "Some properties, such as Sony Pictures, seem to have been ignoring basic security best practices."

Part of the problem is Sony’s huge international web presence. Experts say its highly unlikely that the company's multiple divisions, from movies to gaming, are following any coordinated set of security protocols.

"Sony has disclosed many breaches, including different servers in Indonesia and Thailand. I highly doubt that the same developers who developed these websites are the same developers who worked on the Playstation Network, Sony Pictures, etc.,” said Derek Manky, a senior security strategist at Fortinet. "Quite simply, there is a tradeoff: Security dwindles as you add convenience and complexity."

While the novelty of hacking Sony may continue to diminish as other cybersecurity stories hit the news, it's clear Sony must get its act together or risk more attacks, a loss of customer faith and money and possible government intervention. 

"Sony needs time to get their security house in order," Jeremiah Grossman, the CTO of WhiteHat Security wrote in an email. "As an organization, Sony could see this as an opportunity. A year or more from now, they could be an example of how security SHOULD be done across the entire industry."

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Sony Hacked Again, 1 Million User Data Compromised

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/03/2011 07:35:00 pm


A group of hackers that recently gained notoriety for hacking PBS.org’s home page with an image of NyanCat, announced Thursday that it has stolen data from Sony. It’s yet another in a seemingly endless string of embarrassing security incidents for the company, but what’s shocking is just how exposed the data was to begin with.
In a press release posted to their Web site, LulzSec claims to have broken into SonyPictures.com and “compromised over 1,000,000 users’ personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts.”
The theft included 75,000 “music codes” and 3.5 million “music coupons,” according to the group. LulzSec has posted segments of data they claim to have taken from Sony’s server to serve as proof of their accomplishment.
There are two astonishing twists to this story - one is that LulzSec was apparently able to access the information fairly easily, using what they describe as “a very simple SQL injection, one of the most primitive and common vulnerabilities.” Secondly, “every bit of data we took wasn’t encrypted. Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plaintext, which means it’s just a matter of taking it. This is disgraceful and insecure: they were asking for it.”
If true, it’s devastating news for Sony, which is just getting back on its feet after shutting down access to its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment servers after hackers made off with personal information on more than 100 million user accounts.
The PlayStation Network, which controls PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users’ ability to connect to one another to play online games, was down for more than three weeks through the last half of April and first half of May as Sony struggled to secure the system.
And only in the past 24 hours has Sony brought back its PlayStation Store, which serves as a way for PS3 and PSP users to download games and content for their systems.
Sony hasn’t even yet initiated its “Welcome Back” package for consumers affected by the PSN blackout - a collection of about $100 worth of games and content, as well as access to the company’s premium “PlayStation Plus” service.
SonyPictures.com isn’t directly related to the PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Network - it’s Sony’s consumer-facing Internet site for information on their movies, television and home entertainment offerings on Blu-Ray Disc and other formats. But Sony’s many Web sites and servers have been on the receiving end of security probes and hack attacks for some time, exacerbated by the company’s legal proceedings against George “Geohot” Hotz, a programmer who sought to “jailbreak” or enable the PlayStation 3 console to support Linux operating system software - a feature Sony once supported itself, but later removed in a firmware update. Since the widely-publicized outage of the PlayStation Network, hackers have stepped up their attempts to break into Sony’s systems.

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After the PSN Phenomena Microsoft decides to be nice to hackers

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/31/2011 05:00:00 pm



Software giant, Microsoft has decided that Sony's get tough plans with hackers did not work and probably resulted in getting the Japanese outfit into more hot water. Instead, the cuddly Vole has decided that nurturing hackers, so that they love Microsoft, is a much better plan. Microsoft's General Manager in Ireland Paul Rellis revealed that the company had learned from Sony's heavy-handed response to the PS3 hacking and the subsequent network-wide outages that followed. Instead of doing a Sony and taking a 14-year old boy from Dublin, who attempted to break into the Xbox LIVE network, to the cleaners it is going to nuture his talents instead. The boy was responsible for an alert when Microsoft detected the intrusion and feared that personal information may have been compromised. Rellis revealed  that the Microsoft was working with the teenager to develop his talent and help him use his skills for legitimate purposes. This is more likely to get a positive response from the hacker community than Sony's public attempts to shut down and prosecute hackers like GeoHot and the Fail0verflow group for their part in bypassing the PS3's security measures.
Unfortunately, Rellis did not indicate what Vole was doing with the boy from Tallaght, or what they plan to do with him once his training is finished. A cynic would wonder if the boy has been sent to the Volehill never to be seen again.

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PSN returns to Asia

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/29/2011 09:34:00 pm



The PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services have been restored across Asia, Sony has announced.
The platform was restored in countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand with increased security measures yesterday. In addition to the new safeguards, the platform holder has appointed a chief information security officer at Sony Network Entertainment inc, charged with reinforcing security across the firm's infrastructure, Examiner reports.
Sony president Kaz Harai said: "I'd also like to send my sincere regret to customers in Japan and Asian countries and regions for the inconvenience these events have caused you. We are taking aggressive action including increasing security measures and working with respective authorities to address the concerns that were raised by this incident. "We are making consumer data protection a full-time, company wide commitment so that our customers can rest assured about enjoying their entertainment."
PSN functionality was partially restored in Europe and North America on May 15. The PlayStation Store is expected to return at the end of the month. 

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Microsoft fixed faulty Xbox 360 update by giving free console

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/24/2011 09:40:00 pm


Console gamers just can’t catch a break with the video game gods. This time, it is Xbox 360 gamers who can’t play their games. Some Xbox 360 owners are finding a “disk unreadable” or “disk unsupported” error after updating their consoles with the most recent update, where the only fix is to have their consoles replaced, according to TG Daily. At least Microsoft is proactively seeking out affected customers through Xbox LIVE and offering them a new Xbox 360 S (250 GB) plus a one-year free subscription to Xbox LIVE. Kotaku reports that Xbox gamer Avery Penn found out his console is eligible for a new one by email before his DVD drive failed and could no longer load his games. His 360 60GB Pro was bought in 2009 and has a LiteOn DVD drive. Microsoft is certainly learning from Sony’s recent troubles with disgruntled gamers who were locked out of the PSN for nearly a month. According to Kotaku, this update “reflashes the DVD drive to a new stock firmware, and adds support for new XGD3 disk format. It’s this update that allows an extra GB of usable storage on game discs.” Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry blog believes Microsoft is not just being altruistic in offering customers new consoles: the new update is supposed to beef up the console’s ability to detect pirated disks/non-retail disks and prevent them from playing the full game in the future. If your 360 is affected by the firmware update, contact Xbox Support here or DM XboxSupport on Twitter for assistance. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive list available to check the impact the update may have on your console before you install it. Microsoft did acknowledge the problem “is not specific to older or newer versions of Xbox 360” so there is only one way to find out. Good luck! (Note: This problematic update is not the upcoming one that will allow Xbox LIVE customers to purchase content through their PayPal accounts.)

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Sony disables PSN web login system after new exploit is discovered

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/19/2011 03:18:00 pm



Sony just can’t seem to stave off negative headlines these days.  Just 5 days after PSN services started to be restored throughout the world another nasty exploit has been uncovered allowing hackers to change your PSN account password.  The exploit was discovered by Nylevia last night and confirmed quickly by NeoGAF.
It was found that the web based password reset system on sites like Playstation.com and Qriocity.com will allow someone to change any account password if they know two simple pieces of information; the email address associated with the account, and the date of birth of the account holder, you know, the information that was stolen in late April when hackers first breached the PSN.  On the plus side you’ll get an email informing you that your password was reset.
Sony responded to these reports by taking down all PSN web based login systems.  Right now Sony has given no estimated time for this issue to be fixed.  The only thing Sony is saying is that PSN services won’t be impacted by this downtime.

“Unfortunately this also means that those who are still trying to change their password via Playstation.com or Qriocity.com will be unable to do so for the time being,” said Sony. “This is due to essential maintenance and at present it is unclear how long this will take. In the meantime you will still be able to sign into PSN via your PlayStation 3 and PSP devices to connect to game services and view Trophy/Friends information.”


While it is positive that these troubles won’t impact PSN services it is uncomfortable, to say the least, that Sony is continuing to have issues with their online security.  This has gotten so bad that Nylevia is recommending to maintain a separate email address specifically for use with PlayStation services.  The very idea of maintaining an email address for one account is absurd but it really seems necessary at this point.
This new issue has effectively killed much of the positive momentum Sony has been building since they started bringing PSN services back online last week.  With the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) only a few weeks away, Sony is putting themselves in the position where much of their press conference during the event will have to address these various security issues.  Sony is effectively going into one of the largest industry events of the year in damage control mode instead of creating consumer excitement for future products and games.
Hopefully Sony can address security concerns and strengthen all parts of their network against future attacks. Despite their efforts to improve overall network security they are one company who many will never again trust with their personal and credit card information.

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PSN Network Password Recovery Exploited

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/19/2011 12:32:00 pm




Patrick Seybold, Sr. Direct of Corporate Communications and Social Media, has released a statement on the PlayStation.Blog regarding this situation. Seybold clarifies, it was not a “hack”, but a URL exploit that Sony has now fixed. See the full statement (and original article) after the jump.
Here’s the official statement:
We temporarily took down the PSN and Qriocity password reset page. Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved. In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed.
Consumers who haven’t reset their passwords for PSN are still encouraged to do so directly on their PS3. Otherwise, they can continue to do so via the website as soon as we bring that site back up.
[Original Article] The Password Recovery program that has been implemented by Sony since the PSN’s return has been moving along nicely. With such a huge influx of people requesting their information through their secure email connection, as opposed to on a PS3, Sony stated that the process would take a little longer than originally estimated. It may be even longer now. While the hack that shut down the PSN was quite “sophisticated,” a small little exploit seems to have been discovered to change the passwords again.
But if you’re worried that your PS3 will go silent once again, fret not. This password exploit seems to only be affecting various web-based Sony services. An official community moderator on the EU PlayStation forums have indicated that several sites are offline, including PlayStation.com, the forums, the Blog, Qriocity.com, and others. The login functions for these services are currently unavailable. For the time being all PlayStation Network activity is still online for PS3 and PSP users. So you don’t have to worry about that. But what DID happen?
If you wanted to reset your PSN password from your computer, you were sent an email with a unique URL to match your account. The entire process is actually fairly primitive. Note that it won’t work right now, as login services are offline.
The prodecure is as follows:
1) Navigate to : https://store.playstation.com/accounts/reset/resetPassword.action?token (this is normally, via email, https://store.playstation.com/accounts/reset/resetPassword.action?token=YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY with the y’s being a unique token) – do not enter the code at this point.
2) Open a new tab in firefox, and go to fr.playstation.com (other pages will work too most likely), and click Login (Connexion)
3) Click Recover password
4) Enter the email and date of birth of the target account
5) Click continue, then on the confirmation page, click “Reset using E-mail”
6) Switch back to the original tab, and enter the code, then click continue
7) You will now be asked to enter a new password for the target account
Fortunately, if your account WAS compromised, you should have received an email that said something along the lines of “Thank you for changing your password, if you were unaware of this change please contact Sony,” or something to that effect. While this method is as effective as it is simple, it would take a lot of time to physically access any large number of accounts. It sounds like Sony found out about this and shut off its only access point fairly quickly. Only one more question left:
When will it just end?

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Security Expert Believes PSN Should Remain Offline

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/18/2011 02:24:00 pm



The PSN has been up for a few days now, in most of the world. However, in Japan, the country where Sony calls home, the network has yet to be restored due to governmental blocks in place before it can be separately verified that the new infrastructure is secure. Now at least one security expert in Australia has taken a similar stance.

Bill Caelli, Senior Research Scientist at the Information Security Institute in the Queensland University of Technology, recently spoke with The Australian, a website for the region. He stated that in his opinion the government should have intervened with the restart of the PlayStation Network, to have its new security tested by an outside party. Mr. Caelli begs the question: “Why is it that in the IT industry enterprises certify themselves?” He claims that the average consumer has “no way of assessing the assurances given by the owners of the system themselves.” Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim stated that an investigation into the incident is currently in progress, and he was also pondering if the commission should seek out more information from Sony.
Have Sony disclosed enough information, or should governments play a more active role in determining if any corporation’s actions are sufficient following a massive data and privacy leak like the one Sony has just gone through? The PSN service is currently up in Australia, but of course we will update you if and when the situation changes.
Roger Thompson, AVG’s Chief Research Officer also recommended holding off inputting your credit card details straight away in an exclusive interview (Part 1, Part 2) with PlayStation LifeStyle during the PSN downtime. 

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What the PlayStation Network Hack Teaches Us about Cyber Security??

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/16/2011 02:37:00 pm



Cyber security is becoming increasingly important as more everyday transactions take place on the Internet.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced in April that its PlayStation Network (PSN) had been “hacked” and that an unidentified intruder may now possess every bit of personal data ever uploaded by its clients onto its servers.
The list of information includes names, telephone numbers, birth dates, email addresses, personal and billing addresses, credit card numbers, account passwords, PSN passwords and even purchasing data collated and stored by SCEA.
Somewhere between 70 and 100 million PSN clients have been exposed to the security breach, which SCEA chairman Kazuo Hirai said may have been made by the hacker’s collective known as Anonymous, which the chairman said had been initiating denial of service (DDoS) attacks against SCEA since January.
Anonymous is an organization, but it is also a label used by many independent hackers who participate in “hacktivism” in support of Internet freedom and freedom of speech. The organization, however, has denied any involvement in the hack, challenging that its schemes are benign and intended only to raise awareness.
The seriousness of the attack has put the spotlight on the need for increased commercial cybersecurity, and the US government is insisting on more transparency from Sony about how the attack occurred, its practices and its failure to immediately alert its clients upon learning that their personal information may have been compromised. It has also asked several national and foreign government agencies to investigate, including the FBI.
While Sony’s PSN services are now back, clients are wondering what they should be doing. Cybersecurity and criminal justice experts warn that credit cards must be monitored and passwords must be changed.
The problem, they say, is that many people use the same passwords for most or all of their Internet transactions because it makes them easier to remember as the need for more passwords continues to grow. One previous hack revealed that the majority of passwords collected were either “12345” or “password” and that these were likely used interchangeably with other accounts.
Cybersecurity must evolve, but Internet users must also realize the dangers involved with Internet transactions and practice vigilance as well. Ensuring that websites and businesses are legitimate and have cybersecurity measures in place is the first step; protecting oneself by creating difficult and different passwords and changing them often is the second step, and just as important as the first, as the attack on Sony has proven.

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Full Story of Hacking Anonymous IRC Server

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/15/2011 04:54:00 pm





War rages between competing factions within the hacker collective Anonymous after this weekend's drama-filled takeover of the main Anonymous IRC server network. That network, used by Anons to plan and conduct attacks, was taken over by one of its own, an IRC moderator known as "Ryan."
His attack has sparked a debate over the "leadership" of Anonymous.

Hacking the hackers:-

The main Internet chat servers used by Anonymous have been run by a group called "AnonOps," which provides communications platforms for the group. Pointing IRC clients at anonops.ru or anonops.net would connect anyone to the servers, where they could then join channels like "#OpSony" and participate in various Anon activities.
Though Anonymous is often described as leaderless, factions like AnonOps by necessity have a loose structure; servers must be paid for, domain names must be registered, chat channels must have at least some moderation. Ryan was one of those IRC mods, and this weekend he proceeded with an attack that seized control of the AnonOps servers away from the small cabal of leaders who ran it.
Those leaders include people with handles like "shitstorm," "Nerdo," "blergh," "Power2All," and "Owen"—and if you're paying attention, you'll remember that HBGary Federal's Aaron Barr had fingered Owen as one of three "leaders" of all Anons.
The most popular channel on the old IRC servers now says simply, "anonops dead go home." Ryan also put up a set of chat logs showing Owen and others reacting to the weekend's massive denial of service attacks against AnonOps that culminated in the server takeover. (In the transcript below, "doom" is one of the AnonOps servers.)

Owen -> SmilingDevil: we lost a numbe rof servers last night
SmilingDevil -> owen: :P we need some more security.

t forcved level3 to stop anno
Owen -> SmilingDevil: dude
Owen -> SmilingDevil: 
iuning a /24
Owen -> SmilingDevil: it was in the gbps range

vil -> owen: gigabit or gigabyte?
Owen -> Smili
Owen -> SmilingDevil: doom alone got hit with 1 gb
SmilingD
engDevil: all leafs went down
Owen -> SmilingDevil: add it all up
Owen -> SmilingDevil: yeah huge

ly they know about
Owen -> SmilingDevil: um thats called the hub
Owe
SmilingDevil -> owen: :P we need a hidden irc server for the admins.
SmilingDevil -> owen: that o
nn -> SmilingDevil: :)
SmilingDevil -> owen: did they take that too?
Owen -> SmilingDevil: but anyhow

Owen -> SmilingDevil: we suffered alot of damage
The "old" leaders released a statement this morning explaining what happened over the weekend and why IRC remained down:
We regret to inform you today that our network has been compromised by a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named "Ryan". He decided that he didn't like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. So he organized a coup d'etat, with his "friends" at skidsr.us . Using the networks service bot "Zalgo" he scavenged the IP's and passwords of all the network servers (including the hub) and then systematically aimed denial of service attacks at them (which is why the network has been unstable for the past week). Unfortunately he has control of the domain names AnonOps.ru (and possibly AnonOps.net, we don't know at this stage) so we are unable to continue using them.
Not everyone buys the explanation. One Anon pointed out that the Zalgo bot in question is controlled by a user named "E," not by Ryan.
Second, Zalgo can only see chan msgs and msgs to zalgo. The net staff is saying (pretty much) Ryan used Zalgo to steal server passwords (false, I know server protocol) which were tranfered in channels in plain text for the to see (true).
Third: Take everything AnonOps says with a grain of salt. They're putting out lies and not telling the whole story.
Others pointed out that E and Ryan are friends and that E was actually recommended as an op by Ryan.
However it happened, the end result was that Ryan redirected some of the AnonOps domain names he had control over, he led an attack on the IRC servers with denial of service data floods, and he grabbed (and then published) the non-obfuscated IP addresses of everyone connected to the IRC servers. Ryan apparently also gained root access to the Zalgo network services bot, which is presumably how he harvested the non-obfuscated IP addresses, though it's not clear exactly what Zalgo did or how much access it provided Ryan.

Clashing factions

Ryan is associated with 808chan, a 4chan splinter site and apparent home of the recent denial of service attacks on AnonOps. Ryan is "DDoSing everything that he doesn't own with his band of raiders from 808chan," says one Anon.
The 808 brigade apparently valued big botnets, and made users prove their abilities before letting them participate. AnonOps had a more democratic ethos; anyone could show up, configure the Low Orbit Ion Cannon attack tool, and start firing at Sony or others.
"It's an open network where everyone, mostly newfags can join and not have to prove they're able to wield a botnet and can just join a channel of their choosing, fire up LOIC and hit some organization for reasons they believe are right," said one Anon.
Ryan's control of AnonOps extends to some of the actual domain names, including AnonOps.ru. This wasn't a hack; he was actually given administrative control over the domains some time ago by AnonOps leaders.
One Anon explained the reason for this, saying: "As for the domains, they were transferred to Ryan after some of us got vanned so he can keep the network up. What he did certainly wasn't the plan." (Getting "vanned" refers to getting picked up by the police.)
According to another Anon, the current fight was precipitated when Ryan's IRC credential were revoked. "You morons don't realize Ryan IS LEGALLY THE OWNER OF DOMAINS," he wrote. "Nerdo and Owen removed Ryan's oper, Ryan took domains."

Smoky back rooms?

Among Anons arguing over what happened this weekend, the key debate involves the issue of leaders. Anonymous also said it was leaderless and memberless, but is it? The AnonOps statement above claims that Ryan was angry at the "leaderless" structure of the group and wanted to set himself up as king; again, though, not everyone is so sure.
Owen, for instance, helps to shape the conversation and planning in IRC. One Anon complained privately to me that Owen has booted him from the IRC servers—and thus from the place where all the real work against Sony was taking place several weeks ago. "Owen has not only told me that he doesn't really give a shit about freedom of speech, he's also moderately against the action that's being taken on Sony," this Anon said.
Owen and others conduct some of their work in private, invite-only channels, which leads some Anons to suspect that the really important operations and hack attempts are only discussed in a virtual back room. As one Anon put it yesterday:
"Have you ever been in one of their invite-only chats? This is no bullshit. EVERYTHING is decided on them, the eventual course of the operation, the hivemind's target, the channel's topic, everything. Why all this secrecy? These invite-only chats have NO reason to exist. You want to keep out trolls? Turn on mute, and give voice to a few. At least we can see what is being written."
Others were even angrier. A former AnonOps member wrote:
From the fucking beginning (during the hack at Aiplex which started Operation Payback) there has been an secret club, an aristocracy in AnonOps, deciding how operations will play out in invite-only channels.
It's obvious, for they control the topic, the hivemind, the guides, every single thing behind the scenes.
I don't know if the Owen's current bureaucracy is to be trusted, or Ryan's new delegation (from 808chan!) is.
What I do know is that AnonOps no longer has a good reason to exist. The insane amount of power the channel operators wield, and the reputations gained by their NAMES, causes them to become dictator-like, as "power corrupts".
Why did we leave the comforts of the womb of anonymous imageboards, and end up in name-fagging circlejerks controlled only by a few? Why?
Anonymous, this is bullshit. Neither side, neither Ryan's coalition of hackers nor Owen's bureaucracy can be trusted.
Others argued against this equivalence. "Ryan was the dictator, not the one who decided to solve the dictator problem," said one. Another responded, "Lol, how do you know? For all you know, Owen and Ryan are just the classic generals duking out to take over."
For his part, Ryan told the UK's Thinq today that he shared the concerns over private decision making. Owen and the other leaders "crossed the barrier, involving themselves in a leadership role," Ryan said. "There is a hierarchy. All the power, all the DDoS—it's in that [private] channel."
But among those who backed AnonOps, one thing was clear: Ryan needs to get got. Anons quickly embarked on a mission to find Ryan "dox," and quickly unearthed what they said was his full name, his home address (in Wickford, Essex, UK), his phone number, his Skype handle, and his age (17).
On Twitter, some Anons began spreading the word that Ryan had "betrayed" Anonymous, and that he had done so "to mess up all after having stolen PSN credit cards." No evidence for this last assertion was provided.
As the old AnonOps team attempted to get a handle on what had happened—and after they switched to an Indian domain name—they expressed irritation with early media mentions ("fail reporting") of the attack.
"Some 'mainstream' media is calling this the 'insider threat,'" they wrote, "which isn't really a fair representation, AnonOps doesn't have any corporate secrets, its run by the people for the people on a basis of mutual trust. Drama happens almost 24/7, occasionally drama overspills the network.
"Also we must remind the press AnonOps DOES NOT EQUAL Anonymous, saying they are one and/or the same thing in a blog/article just makes you look stupid. AnonOps is just a IRC network and a few other services that ANYONE can use, its not the only place Anonymous gather, and unlikely to be the *last* (see Streisand effect)."
But will the AnonOps leaders ever gather on a forum they don't control? Ryan took great delight in posting the following alleged comment from Owen to another AnonOps leader: "yo odnt honestly think we're goign to some other irc where we have no control do you?"
Of course, Anonymous has always been about drama and "the lulz," so the current confusion may not even bother them that much; this is just par for the course. But it's certainly amusing to others.
"Lmao. You fucking twits can't even keep your shit safe," wrote someone watching the debacle. "This literally made me laugh out loud. Not lol, but laugh. You all are so stupid."
Click here To see the Dump of Anon Ops Chat 

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Anonymous IRC servers hacked by a splinter group

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/11/2011 02:35:00 am


While Sony is busy pointing the finger at the hacker group Anonymous for the on-going PSN and SOE hacks, Anonymous has problems of its own. This weekend AnonOps, an IRC network where some of the members congregate and plan operations, found itself under a denial-of-service attack. That attack finally ended with a number of its IRC servers being taken over.
The culprit: one of their own, a former IRC Operator (IRCop) named “Ryan.” Depending on who you believe, Ryan was power-hungry and wanted control over AnonOps for himself, or he was tired of the autocracy of the few Anonymous members who made up the group’s loose leadership structure.
The story is far from clear, and may never be, but the fact of the matter is that a good number of the IRC servers used by AnonOps were seized in the attack, and one of the most popular channels was all but shut down. Ryan also owns a number of AnonOps and Anonymous-related domain names, as well.
This schism in leadership at AnonOps is due to two big issues: one of power, and the other of authority. Some believe that Ryan favored a more “prove your mettle” approach to internet activism, where people had to prove they were worthwhile and actually had a cause worth attacking for before they could leverage tools like the infamous Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) denial-of-service tool. LOIC is the utility used to control botnets and give them targets to attack. At AnonOps, virtually anyone could come in, tell the LOIC who to target next, and just sit back and wait for the attack.
The second issue was leadership: a number of Anonymous members argued that the owners of the AnonOps IRC servers and their tools were starting to get a little power-mad as their names were circulated around the Internet. Some members accused the small group of making all of the decisions about who Anonymous would attack, when, and what operations they would engage in without involving the rest of the group in them.
Whether or not they had the right to act as leadership is up for debate. Most of the people in the tiny group of IRC moderators at AnonOps were the people responsible for paying to keep the domains registered and the servers up.
What this means for the group is unclear, and it’s very likely that the amorphous and fluid nature of a group like Anonymous means that any lack of specific leadership will ultimately go unnoticed by the larger collective. At the same time, unless something changes, AnonOps will likely shutter and the group of IRC operators that used it will be forced to gather somewhere else to plan their activities.

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