Playstation To Restore Services This Week 174
iSimon19 writes with word that after last week's unscheduled service disruption and security breach, "On their blog last night, Playstation representatives announced they were restoring services throughout the week. This also included giving all users a month of Playstation Plus free, as well as select downloads for free with their 'Complimentary Offering and "Welcome Back" Appreciation Program.'"
Better (Score:5, Insightful)
Better would be some kind of detailed explanation of how the hell this could have happened in the first place, and what they have done to make sure it won't happen again...
Re:Better (Score:4, Insightful)
Better would be some kind of detailed explanation of how the hell this could have happened in the first place, and what they have done to make sure it won't happen again...
The Truth: "We got hacked."
Care to tell me why you have such an apparent appreciation for PR bullshit? You're certainly not going to get the truth, especially from a public company..
Re:Better (Score:5, Insightful)
watch the video of the press conference.
this was a KNOWN vulnerability see @about 1:15 http://youtu.be/LeNR_HHhIGI [youtu.be]
epic failure.
how do you prevent it? how about patch your shit.
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Is there a raw recording of this press conference?
New video link. (Score:3)
Old one was pulled. Here's a new one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SDCV00ErEs [youtube.com] ... :)
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Has Sony actually confirmed that this has anything to do with hacked consoles at all, I've only heard that as a rumor that was convenient for Sony.
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Sony fucked their reputation long ago, this just removed the last area of credibility they had...
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How the hell is this insightful? Unless of course you did the hack.
Until they catch whoever did it, it's really sloppy and premature to assume it was for OtherOS. It was probably for the money.
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Actually it is a fairly reasonable (though at this point unsubstantiated) assumption. The PS3 went without hack, crack, or compromise until they removed Other OS then within a short period of time has been completely compromised and that would have potentially opened a door on to the network.
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Can you smell what the Rock is cookin'?
Because it's the post-hoc-ergo-prompter-hoc fallacy.
It's not reasonable because none of the specifics about this case would support that notion. Blackhats don't give a shit one way or the other.
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I don't think you quite understand the effort/reward balance here. Sony's console wasn't even a target until Other OS was removed, there was no real effort to crack it and it has since become obvious that it's protection had several very significant issues and would likely have been broken before if anyone cared. When a blackhat is trying to decide what to target a console that requires almost bottom up work is very low on the list especially since there is relatively limited pool of possible reward.
When
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Actually, none of the evidence shows that this was a console based hack.
Unfortunately not a lot of information came out, but the bit of information that Sony has released has nearly confirmed that this wasn't a console based hack.
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Especially now that they're saying the PSN attack was actually the second attack so I'm pretty much ready to concede the point.
It started way before that (Score:5, Insightful)
The OP is modded flamebait, but he's actually posting a VERY relevant point. Sony is a shady company with a repeated history of bad decisions and anti-customer practices. There is a very easy way to avoid these types of things: Stop paying Sony to spit on you!
Actually, it started with me when my Sony home theater system broke. I sent it to them, they kept it for over SIX weeks, and when they sent it back, it was STILL broken the same damn way it was when I sent it to them to start with, but with a nasty scratch down the left side. So I sent it back again, and after several more weeks, it finally arrived, this time actually fixed. Or so I thought. A few months later, just after the one-year warranty period expired, it broke yet again. I called Sony, and they refused to fix it again without me paying for repairs, even though they had the thing in their possession over two of the twelve months of the warranty period. Instead, I took the damn thing to a recycling center.
A few months after that, my PS2 broke. It was well out of warranty, around five years old. I don't know what the useful life of a PS2 is supposed to be, but I'd hope it's more than five years. Under normal circumstances, I'd normally chalk it up to crappy luck and not be too mad about it, but since I'd just been through my home theater system ordeal, yeah, it really pissed me off. (That's mad, not drunk, for you Brits.)
Then the root kit fiasco hit shortly after that. Then my computer's Sony DVD burner stopped working. By this time, I had sworn off all Sony products. I think I remember an article hitting Slashdot around that time frame about Sony USB drives being infected as shipped from the factory. Then there was the Blu-ray shenanigans. Then there was the Other OS thing. Then the GeoHot lawsuit.
So yeah, the PSN thing didn't affect me at all. I'm convinced that it happened because of Sony's lax security practices, and it couldn't have happened to a scummier company. Personally, I think that any Slashdot reader who was affected by this is a damn fool and practically deserved it. I've told all of my friends and family about Sony, and most of them avoid the company, too.
My suggestion to everyone here is to stop accepting being butt raped by this company. Don't just post here about how sad/amused/mad/whatever you are, help spread the word. Post these headlines on your social network. If you're reading Slashdot, your geek cred is probably pretty high in your family and circle of friends, TELL people to avoid Sony. Only by putting them out of business once and for all, or impacting them enough to make them make significant changes, will they ever shape up or ship out.
USB malware (Score:2)
Here is the info [slashdot.org] about the USB incident I mentioned above. It wasn't a virus, it was another root kit-like software being distributed with MicroVault fingerprint scanner software.
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Most people like the Playstation because it's superior to the other gaming platforms. I don't think your butthurt story about a home theater you might have done well to return to the point of sale is going to change their minds.
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Most people like the Playstation because it's superior to the other gaming platforms.
It's so superior, its Network goes down for weeks at a time while it and your credit card information are compromised!
Re:It started way before that (Score:4, Interesting)
Why is it that slashdotters hate MSFT with the fire of a thousand suns - except Xbox. In that case, Microsoft are the good guys?
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Why is it that slashdotters hate MSFT with the fire of a thousand suns - except Xbox. In that case, Microsoft are the good guys?
Maybe because not everyone on Slashdot holds the same opinions, and different situations prompt different users to speak their mind about Microsoft?
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Why is it that slashdotters hate MSFT with the fire of a thousand suns - except Xbox. In that case, Microsoft are the good guys?
who are these 'slashdotters'? are they everyone except you?
wrt msft hate and xbox i guess it's because MS are such a big company, in some markets the different divisions act as though they are a completely different company. The xbox is far from perfect but ms do seem to treat their xbox customers better than sony treat their playstation customers.
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>>>Playstation because it's superior to the other gaming platforms
- The PS1 platform was slower and less capable than the N64 or Saturn or Dreamcast.
- The PS2 platform was slower and less capable than the Xbox or Gamecube.
- The PS3 platform is slower and less capable than the X360.
You might want to retract your statement since it's flat wrong.
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If the dead horse stops wanting to be beaten then the dead horse should stop being relevant.
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Depends on your interpretation of the first amendment.
If you take a literal interpretation, the DMCA itself runs counter to the first amendment. (The other question is, does the first amendment override the copyright clause?)
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However, you can also assume that if there exists an interpretation that allows the copyright clause to stand in full force coexisting with the First Amendment, that will be taken. But if there were any spine in the Supreme Court, they'd have declared most of current copyright law illegal, both pre and post DMCA. It isn't "limited time" anymore (I
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony is now an infamous international criminal. They are guilty of several million counts of computer intrusion (any one of which would likely get a person locked up for several years) and they committed mass theft/fraud (depending on how you want to look at it). If any natural citizen did all of that, he'd be put UNDER the jail. Since the "justice" system has proven to be a complete failure in this matter, it's entirely expected that vigilante justice will fill the vacuum.
There are two great dangers to vig
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I already vote with my wallet. I have bought no Sony products at all in years.
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The intrusion refers to the trojan rootkits they sent out to millions a few years ago and never paid a criminal penalty for.
I am well aware of the dangers of vigilante justice and would FAR prefer that the actual justice system would take actual appropriate action against Sony for their infamous crimes. To approximate the penalty an actual human being would have gotten, they should give up all profits and all right to any trade secret for 5-10 years AND they should be overseen by government officials in all
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Wow, no reading comprehension whatsoever! I said my sympathies are with the 77million and NOT with Sony. I also said I believe the hack was more about credit card fraud than about justice of any kind.
I ALSO said that vigilante justice against Sony wouldn't be surprising and that it might be justifiable but that I would prefer for the justice system to actually do it's job.
I also pointed out that the justice system is simply a formalization of vigilante justice. It's advantage lies in due process and measure
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and those possible 77million credit card numbers are nothing too
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That Free Month (Score:5, Funny)
Blog comments (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Blog comments (Score:5, Insightful)
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Never underestimate a PR agent with multi-user access.
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Re:Blog comments (Score:4, Informative)
it's a lot like free republic but with more teabagging
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Very true, and they've been disabling some accounts. Mine is blocked now. I was critical, not rude at all, now I cannot log on.
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You can't log on because the PSN is still down and the blog uses a PSN account. Once the PSN login server is brought back online, you'll know if you really were disabled, but right now nobody can log on unless they still had a valid cookie.
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Maybe you shouldn't have been a fuck-tard asshat?
Irony?
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it's a lot like free republic but with more teabagging
Maybe you're from someplace other than the states then...?
Re:Blog comments (Score:5, Interesting)
It is interesting, as all "normal" PSN logins used for commenting on that blog expired last week. The cooking keeping them "logged in" to the blog had a 1 week expiration. I guess that only leaves Sony employees to be able to actually log in and comment.
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It is interesting, as all "normal" PSN logins used for commenting on that blog expired last week. The cooking keeping them "logged in" to the blog had a 1 week expiration. I guess that only leaves Sony employees to be able to actually log in and comment.
wrong, that's the eu playstation blog and as you can see there is no comment there http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/01/some-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services-to-be-available-this-week/ [playstation.com]
the us version probably has a longer expiration date or maybe they don't expire at all, also sony itself warned about the cookie expiration ONLY on the eu blog http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/04/28/issue-with-leaving-comments/ [playstation.com]
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are people so desperate to go back to playing CoD multiplayer that they're willing to take any sandpaper-wrapped anal raping that Sony will give them?
Yes, there are such people in the world. Did you even have to ask?
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You need to login to the Playstation Network to post. Besides Sony employees, tell me who can login to the Playstation Network.
Note: First sentence may not be totally accurate.
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If "we" had the time and resources, someone could do a stealth op and determine if those user names existed before yesterday. However, don't discount the other alternative, "threatened censorship". In that case the only comments that would make it through are the ones you see.
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They can't possibly be real. You have to login to the playstation network to comment on Sony's press release post. Can you guess what's impossible to do right now?
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why in the world would someone who paid a large sum of money for a ps3 not want to be able to use one of the most important features?
Which is exactly why the PS3 was hacked in the first place: to restore the Other OS feature to people who paid for it.
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Re:Blog comments (Score:5, Informative)
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Well it's kinda like how there are people who will equate wanting to play games online with getting raped.
Takes all kinds of jackasses to make up a world, son.
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Re:Blog comments (Score:4, Insightful)
Does anyone else have a hard time believing the majority of the comments on the blog post are real? They're all along the lines of, "Hallelujah, Sony is wonderful for getting the service back up!!!!!!!
When a system is brought down, people blame the mischief and malice of the hacker and the culture they believe supports and sustains him.
Whenever the geek summons the masses to the barricades he will far more often than not find them aligned with the other side.
There are 70 million PSN accounts.
What would that make it? 35 times the size of Slashdot?
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Token offering (Score:3, Interesting)
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A class-action of the people against SCOTUS would be interesting, as a challenge of the constitutionality of the ruling.
Of course, that would mean another court would have to be established - perhaps one actually comprised of the people, one that works for the people.
Yea, that's a pipe dream.
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So this court upon which you will conferring the power to review the Supreme Court is going to be directly elected and fairly frequently I take it?
Want to guess what happens to judicial precedent when frustrated voters who don't know anything other than they are frustrated toss out one party and vote in the other each election cycle? Can we at least make the terms like five years or something so we can just know that for even numbered decades abortion and weed are legal, the second and tenth amendments are
Re:Token offering (Score:5, Informative)
Oh please, both parties ride the drug war hobby horse, and both parties love restricting the first ammendment.
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Oh please, both parties ride the drug war hobby horse, and both parties love restricting the first ammendment.
So... if both major political parties are in favour of a certain position, and they're doing it to win votes... that would suggest that that political position is, in fact, strongly endorsed by the majority of voters.
In other words, democracy is working precisely as designed, delivering laws that the majority of citizens want... but you think this is broken because it doesn't give you the laws that you, a minority, want. But you think that because you're a special snowflake, your will should override everyo
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Just because something is popular doesn't make it right. There have been all manner of attrocities that were approved of by the majorty of society at the time.
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The 'both' part being a large part of the problem.
You're assuming that a majority of citizens holding a political position with which you disagree - and their representatives recognising and implementing their will - is in fact a "problem" in the first place.
In theory, such a court exists. But in practice... (Score:2)
that would mean another court would have to be established - perhaps one actually comprised of the people, one that works for the people.
Such a court exists in theory; it's called the ballot box. Three-fourths of state legislatures can call conventions and propose and ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, due to MPAA-owned news networks' influence on public perception of candidates in debates, especially at the primary level, elections are just as corrupt as every other branch of government.
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There was a lawsuit filed against Sony just last week.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384523,00.asp [pcmag.com]
We'll see how the SCOTUS ruling comes into play here no doubt.
Re:Token offering (Score:4, Interesting)
Agreed - they totally screwed over their entire user base and as a consolation prize they are offering more of the same. In fact, I bet that acceptance of this "Complimentary Offering" is contingent upon agreeing to not sue Sony or take part in any class-action lawsuit.
PSN+ is a double edged sword (Score:5, Informative)
Netflix (Score:1)
you must remain a PSN+ member to keep playing those games.
Which differs from the business model of Netflix in exactly what way?
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Not for everyone (Score:2)
What do you have against Netflix?
Nothing. It's just that Netflix is not for everyone, just like medications are not for everyone. Some Netflix fans on Slashdot post comments to articles about having canceled cable TV in favor of Netflix and imply that everyone else should do the same. They appear to be under the impression that no live programming is worth watching.
A Head for Chopping (Score:5, Insightful)
From the Blog Post: "The company is also creating the position of Chief Information Security Officer"
Translation: During this difficult time, we have discovered that we have no security on our network and no one to blame for this. We will now have someone to blame and publicly humiliate when (not if) this happens again.
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Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
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Moosebites can be pretty nasty.
Same deal as back with the CD-Trojans? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hand the plebs a few trinkets and beads and hope they forget quickly how we compromised their privacy and opened the huge can of worms for them.
Gee, Sony, a bit more innovation! Especially since this can is heaps bigger than the last one!
Re:Hand the plebs a few trinkets (Score:2)
Heh I called it (as one of many) in a post in the other thread a few days back. Now we're just waiting for Sony's total immunity from the lawsuit.
Geohot unlocks the hardware code? "Destroy his credibility!".
Sony leaves open millions of credit cards? "Have a free month of service!"
Wakeup call US? (Score:3, Interesting)
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iDeal is a third party system. It's run by a corporation called Currence b.v. And it's the same one factor security used by every other system.
Now there is some advantage in that the authentication is done by the bank rather than the retailer, so the information is only in one place, but the bank can still be hacked. It also seems it would be vulnerable to man in the middle attacks.
What we really need is some sort of two factor security. One thing that happened to me recently was a system Verizon used w
Re:Wakeup call US? (Score:4, Insightful)
Make direct online banking the standard
And do what for payments in person?
Here in The Netherlands we Have iDeal
How is the iDEAL payment flow noticeably different from that of PayPal, which you call "horrible", other than that iDEAL is branded by the bank and not eBay?
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Mmm, well, there is the PCI standard that's supposed to protect you against such things, disallowing ANY kind of credit card number keeping. I guess Sony weren't PCI compliant, and I guess this is why they are being checked by all these groups, because such thing should've never happened, at least for the CC#. I know, I had to go through that test last year, and it's quite secure.
For the account info, that's something else, they screwed up and that's it. Let me guess, their passwords were sent through a SHA
Please hash the passwords next time. (Score:2)
This incident, however, ensures I use PSN points cards for any future PSN purchases.
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Please hash the passwords next time.
Have you seen any reputable resource verifying that the passwords were not hashed?
Beyond that, hashing the passwords means very little. When you have 70 million passwords and the right software and password tables, you will be able to determine a very large portion of those passwords in a very short period of time. Hashing merely keeps the honest person honest, it does not secure the password.
Complimentary Offering? (Score:2)
compensation for PSP owners too? (Score:3)
I dont own a PS3, but my psp is unable to log into the PSN facilities too, which sort of annoyes me (or in case of the PGP-GO owners, completely blocks them from buying new games at all)
I wonder if us PSP owners will also recieve some compensation for the loss of service, and worse, the leaking of our private information
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I can't see why not. I'm sure you'll get the same free PS3 downloadable game that every other PSN user will get.
No Thanks (Score:1)
I'll pass on their token gesture, scripted apology, and boneheaded-ness of connecting with the customer.
Do they still demand our credit card numbers? (Score:2)
What I hated about PSN from the start is that they demand we enter a credit card number just to be able to use the service. I really see no need for any site outside of financial institutions to need to store credit card information - in my opinion this practice should be made illegal. My bank has recently started offering the facility (through Visa) of generating one time card numbers with fixed limit caps - and you can choose your own expiry date. If Sony are still insisting on card numbers - they will be
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What I hated about PSN from the start is that they demand we enter a credit card number just to be able to use the service.
When on earth was that!? I bought my PS3 many years ago (and yes, OtherOS was very much a factor in my decision to purchase one), and signed up to PSN almost immediately, and I've never seen a request for CC info. If they did actually require CC for PSN, it must have been for a very brief period right after the PS3 came out.
Were you maybe thinking of XboxLive? Or have I just been successfully trolled?
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I'm not trolling - just I recall giving my card no grudgingly when I signed up - maybe it was just with the first purchase from the store (my memory is a little clouded - it was a long time ago) - but I still fail to see why the playstation store needs to record the card numbers at all. Its just placing credit card information at risk for no need except for more control by Sony.
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Companies often use credit card info as a way to validate that you're in a particular country, for the purpose of region locking etc. Apple does the same on iTunes Store, for example.
Please assume the party escort submission position (Score:2)
Please assume the party escort submission position
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I can already taste the cake!
Re:One month is a joke (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fo real! I cancelled my psn account over a month ago when they changed the terms of service. Wrote them and told them I declined the change and they happily cancelled my account. Deleted my profile on the ps3 like they asked and lost all of the content I bought. I was happy cause I thought it would be the end of this BS. And I STILL get a mail the other day saying my info was stolen.
I'd happily settle for 8 month of some credit monitoring service (had this happen to me when one if my employers lost a l
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According to engadget the password data wa hashed.
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Passwords were NOT encrypted.
From the article you linked: "That same reporter asked if passwords were encrypted. I believe (translation not being perfect) that Hirai said they were not."
This is clearly fear mongering. The writer admits that they are not sure what Hirai said. Plus saying that they were not encrypted would actually be accurate if the passwords were stored correctly. Encryption implies the ability to decrypt. Password should be stored as a one way Hash, not encrypted. There is quit likely just some misunderstanding
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Do you *seriously* expect any random reporter to understand the difference between encryption and hashing? :)
No I would not expect a random reported to understand that, hence why the reported said "I believe (translation not being perfect) that Hirai said they were not." He clearly didn't understand what Hirai said, which could have very well been, "the passwords were stored with a one way Hash" and the reported never heard the japanese word for "encrypted."
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Do you *seriously* expect any random reporter to understand the difference between encryption and hashing? :)
It seems he got it right, they *weren't* encrypted, however they *were* hashed [engadget.com].
3:01 JST: Sony decided to correct an earlier statement, saying that PSN passwords were not encrypted but rather hashed.
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But... it didn't really happen to sony. It happened to their customers....
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I told him, Considering you got to play about 10 different games on his PS3 compared to the hundreds on his old PS2 (Which never actually failed) - The PS3 has been a lemon as far as he's experienced. And an expensive lemon at that.
And im sure you'll find just as much anecdotal evidence to the contrary too.