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Apr 25, 2011

PlayStation Network Still Down, Sony Says Hackers to Blame

PlayStation 3 maker says its online network is being rebuilt, no timetable for return.

The PlayStation Network is down for the fifth straight day, and Sony says an "external intrusion" has forced it to completely rebuild the infrastructure of the PlayStation 3 online platform to make the system more secure. And while the company says it is working around the clock to get back online, there is still no word when games will continue on PSN.

What appeared to be a sporadic outage on Wednesday night turned into a full-blown meltdown on Thursday, and PlayStation Network has been down ever since. Communication from Sony on the issue has been minimal, but the company has confirmed that an "external intrusion" is what led to the shutdown of the service.


When the service first went down, Sony Communications Director Patrick Seybold said it would likely be a full day or two before the issues were resolved. Now in its fifth day and counting, the latest on the outage we have from Sony came via a blog post from Seybold on Saturday, a message that indicates PSN could be down much longer than anticipated:

"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online," Seybold wrote. "Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."

"We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available."

And though Sony has confirmed PSN was attacked by an outside source, the most obvious culprit, hacker activist group Anonymous, continues to state it had nothing to do with it. Posting on posting on AnonNews.org, the group stated:

"While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves, AnonOps was not related to this incident and takes no responsiblity for it. A more likely explanation is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact the outage is actually an internal problem with the company's servers. Sony is incompetent."

UPDATE: At roughly 11:20 a.m. EST today, Seybold posted on the PlayStation Blog, stating there is no timeframe for when PSN will be back online:

"I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online. Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time."

"As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we're working to get them back online quickly. We'll keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience."

UPDATE: Speaking with PC World, Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, said the company has not yet determined if the personal information or credit card numbers of users have been compromised. He added that Sony would promptly inform users if it found that was the case.

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