Easter, PSN and Public Radio News

This Easter all I wanted to do was try out the PSN. This is no joke either, I’ve had a PSP for years but using that for internet related shenanigans is a nightmare. My new housemate has a PS3 though and this Easter he and his missus (my other housemate) were going down south for the long weekend. I was planning to charge up his PS3 and get some Battlefield 1943 action going. Maybe see how it’s movie purchases compared to iTunes, my current digital store of choice.

You can imagine my disappointment at the mysterious error code I received. The ever reliable Penny Arcade confirmed that the PSN network was down. I did however, strangely, successfully manage to download an update to my housemate’s copy of Super Street Fighter II HD Remix. Surprised he owned it really. So with my weekend fun cancelled I had to settle down and read All Quiet on the Western Front instead. I also got to eat a lot of chocolate and play online games on all the other systems in the house so the weekend was alright in the end.

Anyway today I woke up the 10am news on the radio. 3rd story:
“Sony has come out and claimed hackers have compromised the user accounts of over forty million gamers.”
I felt slightly annoyed that the story was siding with Sony but was surprised that gaming news was even mentioned alongside such important events as the royal wedding.

I stay in bed, snooze it up as rain begins to fall on Perth for the first time in memory. 11pm news:
“UK gamers fear for their online security as Sony admitted hackers had access to over 70 million PSN ids including names and addresses.”
Or something along those lines, they added in a quote from some ‘UK Gamer’ complaining that he couldn’t log in to erase his details. It was getting weird now, reporting news from the perspective of gamers in the UK. Especially since this was Triple J and all.

12pm news:
“Internet security experts have blamed Sony after 70 million Playstation Network users had their information stolen including credit cards and personal addresses.”
In two hours the whole story had turned around to identify the real bad guy – Sony – and now we had reputable lawyers on our side, not just quotes from ‘UK gamers’ who meant to pickup the bong but accidentally called the Australian Broadcasting Corporation instead (it’s been known to happen). It had also been elevated above Kirby and Warren’s Wedding to become the top story.

It’ll be interesting what all the fallout will be from this. Grubdog is penning a more focused article than this musing right now. All I’ll say is that I’m glad the only thing linked to my PSN account is a demo of Half Minute Hero. My housemate on the other hand… I told him about the network and security breach today. He freaked because last week the bank sent him a letter saying someone had seen overdrawing on his account. So I’ll just leave that there with you to mull over. Feel free to speculate who was behind the attack, if it’s even related to PSN’s current downtime, and just when you will wake up to find your bank account empty.