DHS Boss: 'Very, Very, Very Few People Get A Pat Down'; Reality: ~1.8 Million People Per Month
Perhaps The Sequel Can Be 'Don't F**king Worry About Piracy'

Sony CEO Howard Stringer: Month-long Hackathon Merely A 'Hiccup'

Say That Again

from the sony-shouldn't-be-left-in-charge-of-your-metaphors-much-less-your-personal-i dept

Wed, May 18th 2011 9:38am — Tim Cushing
As we've all seen over the last thirty days or so, Sony has handled their month-long data breach/pwnage with all the grace and humility that one expects from an out-of-touch megacorporation. Between dismissing the breach as "harmless" and fingering the ever-popular "Anonymous" for all the trouble, Sony has managed to stay at least one step behind their attackers the whole way. To add insult to injurious class action lawsuit, it emerged from the 30-day hackout bruised, bleeding and completely unable to go back online in its own country.

CEO Howard Stringer apparently has come to the conclusion that there's still plenty of room for more foot in Sony's mouth, dismissing the longest outage by any console maker as merely a "hiccup in the road to a network future."

Now, I don't want to presume to speak for everybody, but generally when I have the hiccups (inside or outside of the road), it tends to leave the nearest 77 million people unaffected. Sure, I may get some random advice (drink a glass of water/hold your breath/salt your passwords), but otherwise life goes on and I'm the only one bothered by it. Plus, these hiccup attacks never run more than 10-12 days at the most and only rarely do I lay the blame at the feet of unrelated hacking entities.

Thank you, Howard, for clearing that up. I'll be sure to dismiss any unknown charges to my credit cards as mere "hiccups in the road to financial instability" and when my linked email account becomes a spam-spewing zombie, I'll just hold my breath until it all goes away.

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Filed Under: hack, hiccup, howard stringer, psn
Companies: sony

32 Comments

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  • icon
    Nathan F (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 9:42am

    For even more fun, Slashdot is reporting that SOE is back down again. Apparently the info they want you to enter for the password change.. is the same information that the hackers got away with.

    http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/05/18/151211/PSN-Up-And-Then-Down-Again

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    crade (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 9:46am

    If that's just a hickup, then they are probably in trouble. Who ever has just one hickup and then they are done? They come in scores. Just imagine what Sony will look like by the time they subside.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Phillip Vector (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 9:47am

    Don't taunt hackers...

    Just.. don't. Speaking as someone who is an old school hacker, there are 3 things you never do.

    1) Never hit a beehive.
    2) Never wave fresh meat in front of a bear.
    3) Never say that a hacker attack is "Harmless".

    All 3 will get you in a load of hurt.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 9:53am

      Re: Don't taunt hackers...

      Don't tug on Superman's cape.

      Don't spit into the wind.

      Don't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger.

      Don't mess around with Tim.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Irving, 18 May 2011 @ 9:55am

    Merely a hiccup...

    ... compared to what we plan to do to our users (tents fingers in evil scheming manner).

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 9:57am

    Well said, Tim. Looking back on their history of asshattery (smackdown from the FTC over BMG CD rootkits, rootkits on USB sticks, COPPA violations for collecting kid info, DADC Securom and its attendant class actions), I'm surprised Sony's permitted to operate without regulators perched on their shoulders 24/7.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Andy (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 9:58am

    Hiccup attack

    Hiccup or no, reports seem to indicate another serious failure allegedly caused by a major problem. This site apparently found the problem and reported it to Sony:

    http://sony.nyleveia.com/2011/05/17/warning-all-psn-users-your-accounts-are-still-not-safe/

    There are a series of updates there relating progress.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    A.R.M. (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 9:58am

    I laughed.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      A.R.M. (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:01am

      Re: I laughed.

      DANG IT! FIX THAT ACCURSED ENTER KEY ISSUE ON SUBJECT ALREADY!

      Back on track...
      I laughed at the "salt your passwords" advice.

      I'll see how this works the next time someone gets them.
      :)

      As for Sony's issues: doesn't matter. According to NPD, people are still buying their products.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        weneedhelp (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:18am

        Re: Re: I laughed.

        "people are still buying their products"

        Uninformed masses. Typical.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          A.R.M. (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:44am

          Re: Re: Re: I laughed.

          Of course they're uninformed. Their network is down. ;)

          I just read this it's down again.

          Because the information originally compromised was needed to restore access.

          I'll repeat this because it truly does suck, but it's damn sickening to see a once FANTASTIC company like this go down in flames from its own stupid mistakes.

          I have to admit their products were awesome (and probably still are) but no way in hell will I buy one in exchange for their recent actions, which started with a damn rootkit file.

          No way.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 11:18am

            Re: Re: Re: Re: I laughed.

            actually not so much anymore

            http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/outsourcing-sony-design-bravia-201104291133.htm

            and has anyone actually looked at the tv part of sony's google tv? its absolutely awful

            [ link to this | view in chronology ]

            • icon
              A.R.M. (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 11:26am

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I laughed.

              Well, it's not like Sony actually made their TV anyway, given only a handful of companies actually make the screens.

              "Made In Japan" isn't something I see stamped on anything imported from Japan anymore.

              I'm more than used to it. It's like "Made in USA", where the "made" only means "A company, based in the US, imported and taped the box shut".

              Not that this is a bad thing.

              [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        jjmsan (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:37am

        Re: Re: I laughed.

        But who's credit cards are they using?

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        CommonSense (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 1:21pm

        Re: Re: I laughed.

        "DANG IT! FIX THAT ACCURSED ENTER KEY ISSUE ON SUBJECT ALREADY!"

        Just [TAB] instead of [ENTER]. An old boss of mine used to use the space bar instead of enter for selecting things too, so he would tab around all over the page until he got to the submit button and then press space....because far too often the enter key doesn't give you the desired response...

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:16am

    Hiccup?

    I've sneezed hard enough to crack a rib before, but I've never hiccuped hard enough to land in the hospital for a month. I have heard they can get dangerous, but I wouldn't label them as "just a hiccup".

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 10:36am

    Friends don't let friends buy Sony

    A philosophy I've used and it's worked pretty well so far.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:40am

    ""The PlayStation Network is down again. Sony had originally enabled passwords to be reset onscreen simply by entering an email address and date of birth. Whoever has the data from Sony, could, in theory, then reset any of the captured users accounts simply by entering the details they stole.""

    It would be funny if hackers went in and changed everyones e-mail addresses using the stolen data.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mike42 (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 10:48am

    Humility

    Sony, repeat after me:
    We are being attacked by some amazingly skilled hackers. We can't touch them. I hope that we can figure out who they are, just so we can give them jobs securing our network. We were a very technologically advanced company in the 80's, but now we are just a bunch of inept empty suits.

    Hackers, please don't hurt us!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 10:49am

    Shoot Our Network and put it out of it's miserY

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 18 May 2011 @ 11:53am

    Even if they did get the credit card numbers, sony claims that they were encrypted. Depending on the encryption used on the data, they probably won't be able to hack it for a long time. They would have to have a lot of time on their hands in order to get any of that data. Years depending on the strength of the ecryption used.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Atkray (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 12:34pm

      Re:

      Given the fact that someone got the data in the first place I wouldn't want to be relying on the encryption to save my credit card.


      It would be ironic if the people responsible used the credit card information to purchase boatloads of Sony products.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      New Mexico Mark, 18 May 2011 @ 12:47pm

      Re:

      Imagine everyone's relief, given the general Sony security cluelessness and prevarication.

      Stored BASE64 -- Check
      Credit card numbers were encrypted -- Check

      Seriously:

      1. Believe NONE of Sony's claims unless verified by an independent (preferably hostile) third party.
      2. Encryption is tricky to get right and incredibly easy to do wrong, even by security professionals.
      3. If you know what the encrypted data are supposed to contain (general format and/or specific text), any encryption method could probably be attacked with much less effort and much greater likelihood of success.
      4. "But it was encrypted" sounds nice. Replace that with "They stole our safe with everything in it, but don't worry, we think it is a really strong safe with a good lock" and see how that sounds. Especially if it is *your* money and reputation locked in there.
      5. The "but it was encrypted" defense is probably just another damage control dodge to avoid specifically notifying millions of customers until the encryption is proven to be weak or worthless.

      NMM

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Ryan (profile), 18 May 2011 @ 1:51pm

        Re: Re:

        Plus 'encrypted' is great but if you accessed the data via their own API that decrypts the CC info before passing it along for a purchase it doesn't help much. Encrypted HD's are great if your Laptop gets stolen, not so much against a machine that has a legit reason to decrypt the data into memory. After all it has to be 'plain text' to someone at some point or it's useless, but if you WANT one I'll sell you a SUPER secure hash that makes all credit card numbers store as 'x' totally 100% non-reversible :P

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]


DHS Boss: 'Very, Very, Very Few People Get A Pat Down'; Reality: ~1.8 Million People Per Month
Perhaps The Sequel Can Be 'Don't F**king Worry About Piracy'
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