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[Magdalen Dano]

The 2011 PlayStation Network outage (sometimes referred to as the PSN Hack) was the result of an "external intrusion" on Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, in which personal details from approximately 77 million accounts were compromised and prevented users of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles from accessing the service.[1][2][3][4] The attack occurred between April 17 and April 19, 2011,[1] forcing Sony to deactivate the PlayStation Network servers on April 20. The outage lasted 23 days.[5]

Government officials in various countries voiced concern over the theft and Sony's one-week delay before warning its users. The breach resulted in the exposure and vulnerability of personally identifiable information including usernames, physical addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, passwords, and financial details such as credit card and debit card information.[6]

At the time of the outage, with a count of 77 million registered PlayStation Network accounts,[13] it was not only one of the largest data security breaches, but also the longest PS Network outage in history.[14][15] It surpassed the 2007 TJX hack which affected 45 million customers.[16]

Sony acknowledged on the official PlayStation Blog that it was "aware certain functions of the PlayStation Network" were down. Upon attempting to sign in via the PlayStation 3, users received a message indicating that the network was "undergoing maintenance".[18][19] The following day, Sony asked its customers for patience while the cause of outage was investigated and stated that it may take "a full day or two" to get the service fully functional again.[20] Sony suspended all PlayStation Network and Qriocity services worldwide.[21]

While most games remained playable in their offline modes, the PlayStation 3 was unable to play certain Capcom titles in any form. Streaming video providers throughout different regions such as Hulu, Vudu, Netflix and LoveFilm displayed the same maintenance message. Some users claimed to be able to use Netflix's streaming service[22] but others were unable.[23]

Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold reiterated on the PlayStation Blog that fixing and enhancing the network was a "time intensive" process with no estimated time of completion.[26] However, the next day Sony stated that there was a "clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online", with some services expected to be restored within a week. Furthermore, Sony acknowledged the "compromise of personal information as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems."[27]

Sony to provide an update in regards to a criminal investigation in a blog posted on April 27: "We are currently working with law enforcement on this matter as well as a recognized technology security firm to conduct a complete investigation. This malicious attack against our system and against our customers is a criminal act and we are proceeding aggressively to find those responsible."[7]

Sony issued a press release, according to which the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) services had been taken offline for maintenance due to potentially related activities during the initial criminal hack. Over 12,000 credit card numbers, albeit in encrypted form, from non-U.S. cardholders and additional information from 24.7 million SOE accounts may have been accessed.[31][32]

During the week, Sony sent a letter to the US House of Representatives, answering questions and concerns about the event.[33] In the letter Sony announced that they would be providing Identity Theft insurance policies in the amount of US$1 million per user of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, despite no reports of credit card fraud being indicated. This was later confirmed on the PlayStation Blog, where it was announced that the service, AllClear ID Plus powered by Debix, would be available to users in the United States free for 12 months, and would include Internet surveillance, complete identity repair in the event of theft and a $1 million identity theft insurance policy for each user.[34][35]

Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai reiterated said the "external intrusion" which had caused them to shut down the PlayStation Network constituted a "criminal cyber attack".[36] Hirai expanded further, claiming that Sony systems had been under attack prior to the outage "for the past month and half", suggesting a concerted attempt to target Sony.[37]

On May 3 Sony stated in a press release that there may be a correlation between the attack that had occurred on April 16 towards the PlayStation Network and one that compromised Sony Online Entertainment on May 2.[31] This portion of the attack resulted in the theft of information on 24.6 million Sony Online Entertainment account holders. The database contained 12,700 credit card numbers, particularly those of non-U.S. residents, and had not been in use since 2007 as much of the data applied to expired cards and deleted accounts. Sony updated this information the following day by stating that only 900 cards on the database were still valid.[38] The attack resulted in the suspension of SOE servers and Facebook games. SOE granted 30 days of free time, plus one day for each day the server was down, to users of Clone Wars Adventures, DC Universe Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest Online Adventures, Free Realms, Pirates of the Burning Sea, PlanetSide, Poxnora, Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, as well as other forms of compensation for all other Sony Online games.

Sony announced that it was adding Data Forte to the investigation team of Guidance Software and Protiviti in analysing the attacks. Legal aspects of the case were handled by Baker & McKenzie.[39] Sony stated their belief that Anonymous, a decentralized unorganized loosely affiliated group of hackers and activists may have performed the attack.[40] No Anons claimed any involvement.[41]

Sony stated they had begun "final stages of internal testing" for the PlayStation Network, which had been rebuilt.[42] However, the following day Sony reported that they would not be able to bring services back online within the one-week timeframe given on May 1, because "the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers" had not been known at the time.[43] SOE confirmed on their Twitter account that their games would not be available until some time after the weekend.[44]

Various services began coming back online on a country-by-country basis, starting with North America.[47] These services included: sign-in for PSN and Qriocity services (including password resetting), online game-play on PS3 and PSP, playback of rental video content, Music Unlimited service (PS3 and PC), access to third party services (such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv), friends list, chat functionality and PlayStation Home.[47] The actions came with a firmware update for the PS3, version 3.61.[48] As of May 15 service in Japan and East Asia had not yet been approved.[49]

Sony shut down the password reset page on their site following the discovery of another exploit[50] that allowed users to reset other users' passwords, using the other user's email address and date of birth.[51] Sign-in using PSN details to various other Sony websites was also disabled, but console sign-ins were not affected.[50]

Security experts Eugene Lapidous of AnchorFree, Chester Wisniewski of Sophos Canada and Avner Levin of Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) criticized Sony, questioning its methods of securing user data. Lapidous called the breach "difficult to excuse" and Wisniewski called it "an act of hubris or simply gross incompetence".[54][55][56][57]

US Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut demanded answers from Sony about the data breach[58] by emailing SCEA CEO Jack Tretton arguing about the delay in informing its customers and insisting that Sony do more for its customers than just offer free credit reporting services. Blumenthal later called for an investigation by the US Department of Justice to find the person or persons responsible and to determine if Sony was liable for the way that it handled the situation.[59]

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart confirmed that the Canadian authorities would investigate. The Commissioner's office conveyed their concern as to why the authorities in Canada weren't informed of a security breach earlier.[61]

Following a formal investigation of Sony for breaches of the UK's Data Protection Act 1998, the Information Commissioner's Office fined Sony 250,000 ($395k) and issued a statement highly critical of the security Sony had in place:

A Canadian lawsuit against Sony USA, Sony Canada and Sony Japan claimed damages up to C$1 billion including free credit monitoring and identity theft insurance.[66] The plaintiff was quoted as saying, "If you can't trust a huge multi-national corporation like Sony to protect your private information, who can you trust? It appears to me that Sony focuses more on protecting its games than its PlayStation users".[67]

In October 2012 a California judge dismissed a lawsuit against Sony over the PSN security breach, ruling that Sony had not violated California's consumer-protection laws, citing "there is no such thing as perfect security".[68]

In a press conference in Tokyo on May 1, Sony announced a "Welcome Back" program. As well as "selected PlayStation entertainment content" the program promised to include 30 days free membership of PlayStation Plus for all PSN members, while existing PlayStation Plus members received an additional 30 days on their subscription. Qriocity subscribers received 30 days. Sony promised other content and services over the coming weeks.[30]

There were reports on the Internet that some users experienced credit card fraud;[74][75][76] however, they were yet to be linked to the incident. Sony said that the CSC codes requested by their services were not stored,[77] but hackers may have been able to decrypt or record credit card details while inside Sony's network.[74]

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