An update regarding the recent PSN downtime has been posted today on the official Playstation blog, indicating that the reason for the downtime is due to an unauthorized intrusion into Sony's network. Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media, has released an official statement to notify PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that the intrusion occurred sometime between April 17th and April 19th and it is believed that user account information was compromised. Here is an excerpt from the statement that details what information they believe has been stolen:
"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."
The full statement can be found here. Oh, and for those who don't care about their personal information being stolen and just want back online, Sony also indicated that they intend to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity services restored within a week. Unfortunately, this also seems to be the first opportunity users will have to update their PSN passwords. In the meantime, it might be a good idea for PSN customers to update passwords on any sites that share the same email and/or username as their PSN accounts.
vBulletin Message