Playstation Network (PSN) and Qriocity services have been offline since April 20, leaving millions of subscribers without service with no clear time table as to when they will be back up due to what Sony is calling an “external intrusion.”
In response to this, Sony released the following statement:
An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.
This supposed hacker attack in itself didn’t bring down the network, but it apparently left quite a mess. In the end, Sony had no choice but to take PSN offline while they cleaned the system and attempted to figure out a way to prevent this attack from occurring again in the future.
Anonymous, the internet hacker group, has been blamed by Sony for the attack as they are said to be seeking vengeance for a hardware hacker who was recently sued by Sony for publishing keys that allow people to bypass Sony’s security measures to execute self code. Just one thing though; they claim they did not do it.
While the group is not taking responsibility for the actions, they do say that a rogue member of Anonymous may have done this, but who does Anonymous think is to blame? Sony themselves. They say Sony is merely covering up for their own server issues in attempt to limit PR fallout from the debacle.
Taking down PSN is the type of problem Sony does not need. They market themselves as an entertainment box, not just some expensive piece of equipment used to play video games. This is a pretty big deal in an age when people increasingly depend on their video game consoles not just for multi-player support, but for the streaming of media services in the living room like Netflix and Hulu.
Internet services like Sony’s PSN and Microsoft’s Xbox Live are increasingly where the money is coming from as it is harder then ever to make money on the sale of the hardware itself due to pricing wars within the industry. Just ask Microsoft who historically has lost money on their Xbox console until recent years when XBox Live exploded with profitability.
While this problem is new to Sony, it will certainly have some people second guessing their choice of console provider in the living room.