So, have you been paying attention? Shit's going down with the PSN. That is to say, the PlayStation Network is down. Whether you've been bitching non-stop about not being able to play Call of Duty online or bragging about your Xbox Live Gold membership or just haven't figured out the Netflix work around, you've probably already heard that you won't be playing games online for an undisclosed period of time.
Did you know that there are 75 million registered PSN accounts in North America. That doesn't include the Japanese and European PSN accounts you have for all those amazing demos you want either! What do you think someone could do with the names and addresses tied to all those accounts.
Maybe they could start a new nation-wide junk mail campaign. Maybe such an individual is looking to promote their Killzone 3 frag movie montage on Youtube. Looking for a couple million e-mails to blast your Twitter account to? The individuals who intruded upon the PlayStation Network have just the e-mail database you're looking for.
It's not all fun and games though… at least no online games. Sony sent out an e-mail today to PSN users elaborating on the nature of the problem:
Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.
Yeesh! Luckily for me I've linked someone else's credit card with my PSN account.
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