John Smeadley Update On DDOS Attack - "Almost Under Control"

President of Sony Online Entertainment gives an update on the DDOS attack that struck many Sony related services this morning.

[Honest_gamer]

And that's all it is, Inconvenience.
.....
Wont say no to another free game tho.....;-)

Ddo's attacks happen all the time, hope they catch the person responsible i work at one of the largest web development companies in Scotland, ddos happens quite often to our larger clients.

[Malphite]

Yeah Riot and Battle.net got hit aswell. Not too much of a big deal. Still it's annoying that this kinda stuff always happens on weekends.

[Orbilator]

Happens at weekends as they are at school during the week and can only stay up late at the weekends looool

[DragonKnight]

Looks like one of the "1337 hax0rz" disagreed with your completely factual statement.

[TrollingKoala]

If "Lizard Squad" just did a DDoS attack just to inconvience PS players for a period of time so they cant have fun then i think they are just ar*eholes to be perfectly honest.

[RDF]

Lizard squad...more like "Tadpole Squad" (drumroll)

[SpinalRemains138]

Well yeah.

They don't know what its like to enjoy a woman, so they want to hurt others. Rather than embracing their manhood, they run from it and fill the void with obnoxious behavior.

Nothing changes.

[Dee_91]

more like attention whores

[Muzikguy]

Attention whores like the people not donating during the ice bucket challenge?!

Bada-bing....

[CorndogBurglar]

@ RDF
Tadpoles turn into frogs, not lizards.

Just sayin....

[nosferatuzodd]

its anonymous not lizard

[SINISTERGENESIS]

I'm just glad that Sony are updating us as frequently as possible... BTW find these dipshits and put em in prison for a while... Show them actions have consequences

[EikichiOnizuka]

lol not surprising, since last time they waited a month to tell us about another certain hack.

[EikichiOnizuka]

ya but when it happens to mircosoft and xbox, you guys are quick to march the parade

[JD_Shadow]

It wasn't the way to get the point across that PSN should be more secure. It is true that you can never be too careful in this high tech world.

That having been said, though, outrage over the hackers shouldn't be mistaken as leniency towards any company to protect these things to the best of their ability to make sure that these types of attacks are kept to the barest minimal that they possibly can. If a company is getting hacked time after time again, then it's obvious that whatever system they do have in place isn't secure enough, and they should look to make sure that they spend the resources to get it sorted out and more secure. They should do whatever is in their power without compromising the rights of honest consumers or ignoring what consumer goodwill means.

If Sony, or any other company for that matter, isn't doing what they should be doing to prevent these things, and if the tools would've been there for them to prevent this sort of thing if they made efforts to acquire those resources, then they should be called out by pretty much everybody. We can condemn the type of hacks that do not raise awareness of consumer goodwill, and still demand that networks be more secure if they are there. The hacks today were not the way to do this sort of thing, but it begs the question of if there was indeed a "there" there.

[rainslacker]

This type of attack isn't really a hack though. It's just a denial of service that is not completely stoppable due to the way the internet, and all networks for that matter, are structured.

Nothing in this attack would have lead to any information being stolen, or anyone being hurt other than the inconvenience of not being able to use those servers(I was last night when getting back into WOW for the first time in 3 years).

If a hacker wants to steal information, they're better off not making their presence known until it's too late.

I agree, more security and preventative measures are a good thing, but so far there is nothing to say that Sony hasn't done that since their last attack. Many online gaming sites were attacked over the weekend, and most of them didn't fare any better.

MS may come off clean just due to the massive infrastructure of their online networks....but very few companies have those kinds of resources, and I doubt any gamer here would want to spend the money to help get these other companies up to par.

[JD_Shadow]

You make good points in that. As I've mentioned previously, even the most secured services are not 100% locked down. You'll have those moments. The concern is when you have so many of those moments and you never see anything done about it.

No doubt there was some agenda other than "because we can" or "we want those numbers" that led them to this. Whether you agree with the morality in their actions is another matter entirely. But they wanted to draw attention to something, and they wanted to show that they thought there was a "there" there. Did they find it? Did they convince us despite the immoral nature they went about doing this (I hesitate to say unlawful because I honestly don't know the legal ramifications of these types of things; shows you just how out of date the laws are to the digital age when even these issues are hard to make a concrete judgment on)? We can condemn the hack (easier to call it that), or condone it depending on your stance on this sort of thing, while still demanding that our vital information is secure. We can be fans of a company or a system while hoping that they will do what they can to make it as safe and enjoyable as they can make it.

I wouldn't say it would be completely avoidable, either, but would hope that they learn from this history so they are not doomed to repeat it, and to do so in a way that keeps consumer goodwill in mind.

[rainslacker]

Fair enough point. I just don't think Sony sat on their laurels after the last big hack which shut them down for a couple weeks.

I also don't think this particular hacker group was doing anything alturistic. If you read their tweets page, you would see they were just doing it for attention. The whole moral warrior thing came about later after it started getting mainstream attention. At no time did they seem like they cared about the consumer, or that the servers could be shut down.

The one guy who was on the plane that was threatened stated that the DDoS actually targeted a portion of the internet that wasn't on their own servers. Or at least he said most of the attack was of that nature. He didn't give specifics, but this means that they actual attack while directed at Sony, may not have actually caused the server to crash at all. Just means that people couldn't access it because a section of the backbone leading to it was flooded. If that's the case, it's quite likely other services served by that server were also affected, but of course we wouldn't likely hear about that.

Anyhow, as far as legality, DDoS can't really be done from one location on this scale, so it can get mired when trying to find evidence. But this is part of the actual law that surrounds it. This is the US law, and I believe it falls in line with international code as laid out by the UN.

Knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information, code, or command that causes damage or intentionally accessing a computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, causes damage that results in:
* Loss to one or more persons during any one-year period aggregating at least $5,000 in value.
* The modification or impairment, or potential modification or impairment, of the medical examination, diagnosis, treatment, or care of one or more individuals.
* Physical injury to any person.
* A threat to public health or safety.
* Damage affecting a government computer system

Ripped that off Yahoo answers, so not sure it's 100% accurate, but I remember reading something like that a while ago, so I'll go with it.

[solar]

problem is Sony should have all the necessary guards for it to not happen. yes it sucks for the people who pay for the service. which reminds me why i dont pay for an online service from a console manufacturer. Online should be free, no restrictions, no perks for paying more after you buy said console.

[Muzikguy]

I love how all these amazing journalists we have all of a sudden are throwing the word "hack" around over this. Just to get hits. It's good to know what's going on and hear from Sony, than have to rely on these amazing "talents"

[Muzikguy]

I came home hoping to play some Blacklight Retribution.... And I can't :/ I just love when a few pricks have to ruin it for everyone else.

[HonestDragon]

Sigh. An inconvenience to be sure, but still quite annoying. It's like these hackers have nothing better to do with their time than temporarily block gamers' ability to sign in to their online accounts.

[Rhaigun]

As long as I can get a Diablo run in at some point today, we're good.

[nX]

lol I'm waiting for that one as well :D
Still a few hours left before the week begins.

[KingKongKilla]

Should of bought a Xbox1 been playing all day.

[rainslacker]

Does the X1 version of Diablo require a Battle.net authentication? I ask because Battle.net was being attacked last night. I had problems logging on, and staying connected to it after deciding to get back into WOW for the first time in 3 years due to a free copy of Mists of Pandaria. I hope it's OK tonight, as I want to play after I'm done on here.:)

Not trying to insinuate anything, I'm genuinely curious.:)

[nX]

Without all my friends, a choppy framerate and no additional content? No thanks, I'm able to play again anyway.

[aksmashh]

Had to be on Sunday!!! f..ing annoying!!!!

Also I didn't realise you can't play singleplayer games which you have downloaded!!!

Edit: ignore the sentence above

[dohdeaux]

you can, just have to make sure your console is set as your primary.

[aksmashh]

Thanks mate!

I can't activate it as primary until PSN is back working :(

[fr0sty]

You're being downvoted because that isn't happening to everyone else... so you're either full of crap or it was a temporary, isolated incident.

[GameSpawn]

@snookie

The Vita, PS3 and PS4 download license files periodically. They do this so that you can play offline temporarily. The Vita is more semi-permanent than the PS3 and PS4 because of the likelihood that it will not be online as often as the home consoles.

In your case, your system missed its chance to get the updated license files and you got temporarily locked out. It's sucks, but this can happen with more than just the PSN. It can happen with XBL and most games on Origin. Steam is a little less draconian, but still does the same thing (it's more like the Vita with more semi-permanent license files).

[Ju]

Give this man his bubbles back and remove the trolling. He is absolutely correct. I can't play any games on my PS4 because of this. I only have one physical copy which works - all other games can't verify their licenses which makes them completely useless. I really don't see the need that a license needs to be verified that often - there should be other ways to prevent that.

[qwerty676]

any updates if the hackers claim that they entered sonys data base is true?

[Majin-vegeta]

Nope not true.I went through all the tweets and nothing was ever stated.That other article made that whole part up.

[qwerty676]

ok good, just to be safe though its why i always just buy those gift cards instead.

[Randostar]

@quicktim
Yup, I go to amazon to buy my PSN currency. Just buy my code and done.

[HanzoHattori]

Please do not call the person(s) responsible for this hackers. This type of thing is equivalent to a child writing all over the walls in your house.

[Randostar]

I think if it was really that easy to cause this big a shit storm it would happen more often.
I'm not calling the person who did this a "hacker". Im just saying that when the attack is big enough to affect this many servers for this long it took a little effort.

[rainslacker]

@Rando

We could take any 10 people here(possibly less), download a program off the internet, and do the same exact thing to any company in the world. It doesn't require that much effort to do this kind of attack.

Some may handle it better than others.

It also only takes one of them to screw something up for the whole lot of them to be prosecuted for it. Interstate communications is pretty serious business to the FBI, and surprisingly it's not always hard to find them unless they cover their tracks well.

That's why real hackers don't tend to broadcast their attacks, via twitter especially, unless they know they have their bases covered.

[WeAreLegion]

The group said there are "Lizards in Sony's database." It was just a tongue-in-cheek statement. That website blew it out of proportion.

[Malphite]

There is no way for them to get access to the data by DDoSing the PSN.

[jegheist2014]

if therei n database i lose my crap im gonna get reimbursed ill fucking tell u that im dead serious i dont work my goddamn ass off to have what i pay for compromised

[nX]

Your life would be easier if you would understand problems instead of raging about them. With the methods they used there is no way they could do anything else than bringing down the servers.

[T2X]

Settle down Francis.

[KingKongKilla]

Should of gone xbox1.

[zsquaresoff]

I was playing the Last of us multiplayer when it got shut down, hopefully it gets resolved soon so I can go shiv some more campers.

[Man_Marmalade]

Try it again. I just signed back on to PSN. I don't know if the games are down but everything else is working fine for me.

[chikane]

Fix it sony. and try using that ps4 online fee to better secure the network from now on. just don't wanna see this happening to my favorite brand.

i bet M$ was behind this..

..jk

[Ozmoses]

good.. tired of these dudes...

so many other things in the world that hacking could actually benefit...

use hacking to prevent the next Enron scandal or something...

leave the video games alone...

too many people die on this planet each day... there are REAL things people should be standing up for...

they shouldn't be attacking video games... since video games offer us humans a temporary relief from this shitty world.

[equal_youth]

its like u said but some kids are playing hackers without thinking about the consequences. these people behind the attack must be some really selfish or/and lonely guys.

[-Foxtrot]

The problem is these hackers do shit like this yet they are rewarded with big paying jobs at huge companies

Short while after the whole Geohot thing, the guy who set off a chain reaction which led to Lulzsec hacking Sony in 2011 went to work at Facebook and now he works at Google

I mean what the fudge.

Meanwhile honest, hard working people were probably turned down that job because he got it instead

[Salooh]

Geohot is different then these hackers. He's actually talented. Not all hackers deserve attention . He did good things even though bad stuff came along with it. Wish if he hacked the vita though xD . Would have unlocked it's true potential in software. Hackers made iPad into a phone . So vita can do it too if it's hacked. That's just one example of good hacking.

iPhone without jailbreak would be awful , but with it you can change every tiny thing of it's OS.

[jukins]

geohotz didnt do anything malicious though. He "hacked" the ps3 then showed it off. He then supposedly got raided, which makes me wonder how sony got something like that done so quick, thats when anon/lulzsec stepped in.

[Salooh]

What do you expect from wahabia ?. The hacker said that he planted flags of alqaeda inside the server. lol ...

[Stoppokingme]

Sony shouldn't have to apologize, this was the work of dickheads and the blame should be placed squarely on said dickheads.

[Man_Marmalade]

Can't wait to get back on The Last of Us MP. I used to be really good till I stopped playing for over a year because of going to NY to visit.

Edit: Just tried again and I got signed back on :D
TLOU servers are still down but at least PSN is back up.

[Darth Gamer]

Almost under control is a load of BBsS. He said that 5 hours ago on Twitter.

[RDF]

You shouldnt really worry. I doubt you even own a PS3/4. So this shouldnt bother you at all.

[Darth Gamer]

If I could post a pic, you'd see that I own a PS1, a PS2, two PS3s and a PS4. "PSN tag LordDarthGamer". I also own an Xbox , Xbox360 and XboxOne, a Wii and WiiU. I'm what you call a real gamer and I'm 40 with a job so I can afford them. Thanks for asking.

[WeAreLegion]

He's only talking about SOE. He does not have any control over the PlayStation Network. Just SOE's servers. I love Smedley, but everyone is acting like he works for PlayStation. He does not.

[Gravity_DoGG]

Still down..

[RDF]

West Coast up

[Majin-vegeta]

Still down for me :/.

[incendy35]

They might as well just do the maintenance today since it is already down.

[thecowsaysmoo]

They might as well shut down psn so they won't lose anymore money on it.

[BEASELY]

I can't eve play half of my digital games, including Rogue Legacy because they're locked even though they're offline. Some license verification nonsense that looks like DRM basically. Pretty pissed off to be honest.

[Kiddcarter]

Its not drm, you haven't set up your systems options correct yet, all you have to do is set your system up as your primary in order to play your games offline

[BEASELY]

I'm the sole proprietor of the account and always have been, and have played games offline before. However, back on PS3 I did share my account with a real life friend. Could this have thrown it off? I'll play with the settings, thanks.

[once_a_jedi]

Was down for around 2 hours for me, ( well,my girlfriend actually, she's quite fond of Killzone 3 multi-player ), so no great loss. Sorry for those who had longer downtime.

[Sm311M3Fart]

I wasn't able to boot up my ps4 for almost 12 minutes. Is it only me?

[HanzoHattori]

Sony is probably trying to isolate the source of the attack. That's probably the reason the XMB doesn't show up. Give it a few minutes. It'll come up once they're done checking the server that your console connects to.

Edit:My console boots up, but still no PSN I can watch live streaming though. 1:26pm EST

[Sm311M3Fart]

I gonna wait till the psn issue is resolved, but it's strange, it never happen before.
It's seems like something is wrong with my psn profile, because when I press the ps button on my ds4 I can see only "Enter Standby Mode" and "Turn Off Ps4", "Log Out of PS4" and "Switch User" doesn't appear.
At least I'm able to play the games after very long boot up.

[Sm311M3Fart]

Very long ps4 boot up it's definitely related to the psn. I unplugged the network cable and my console boot up normally (less then a minute).
It could be because I got plenty dlc (mainly free), psn account since 2007.

[rainslacker]

Yeah, the XMB will take a long time to come up if it's trying to connect to PSN and it can't. We changed out our ISP, and they decided to use a gateway modem that uses a different gateway IP adress than every other gateway out there, and since it's a POS router it couldn't resolve the DNS.

Anyhow, trying for a very long time to isolate the problem(which was network wide at our house due to that stupid gateway IP adress), I used the PS4 often to try to connect because it was on a switch that was 3 switches away from the modem. Each time I booted up, it took a really long time to load...maybe 1-2 minutes.

After fixing the IP problem and using a static DNS instead of DHCP, the PS4 boot up as quickly as it ever has.

Anyhow, definitely something that Sony should take a look at. Think it'd be better to give quick access to the XMB and then connect to PSN. Too many reasons why the internet could go down.

[1nsomniac]

Hopefully after the embarrassment of this happening again Sony will pull their finger out of their asses & implement DDoS protection & put our money to use!

[HanzoHattori]

There is no such thing DDoS protection. Anyone who claims otherwise is trying to rip you off.

[1nsomniac]

What are you talking about!??

Yes there is, I know because we paid & implemented some within the gas & oil industry!

It's not all that expensive & it's not difficult to do!

So I suggest you get your facts right before making ridiculous claims.

[irepbtown]

And when a new title launches, millions of people decide to log on and play the game at the same time, what will happen?

DDoS protection is fine for websites, but for something like PSN, I reckon it would be pretty bad.

[Kiddcarter]

Maybe this ddos was a good thing for you, with psn being down it will give you time to read a book or something, because you have no clue what the hell your talking about!

Don't get me wrong, when you say things like sony should use our money for ddos protection, it sounds like you know something about something, but you don't

[RDF]

Umm....there is no such this as DDoS protection. You can add back up servers,DNS servers and so forth but thats it. Even doing that doesnt protect you 100%. So before you tell anyone they should get their facts strait you should take a long look at yourself first.

[Dontworrybhappy]

Why doesn't Sony have back up servers?

[DarXyde]

I hope they don't pull another stunt like this when Destiny comes out. That wouldn't bode well for anyone.

...you know, except the anti-Sony fankids.

[Revengeance]

Lol a DDoS attack is NOT a hack. It's overloading the servers. Know the difference people.

Love how the Xbox fanboys were saying Sony is getting hacked again without even knowing what a DDoS attack is. That's why they're hypocrites.

[Clown_Syndr0me]

Kinda proves PSN servers cant handle much then. Its ridiculous I havent been able to do anything on my PS4 all day.

[Hardcore_gamerxbox]

Lol you don't need to back up Sony everyone knows Sony is crap at online security and they never gonna get better

[Soldierone]

I hope they report all IP addresses and any information they get from this to authorities. Seriously people hate the NSA etc... but when morons pull crap like this you realize why it exists in the first place.

How does hurting the people you supposedly "defend" make a point? You just tick off everybody. Congrats kids, you learned how to ping, very bright........

[C_Dub]

It's been down ALL DAY for me. The one day I have some free time and this sh*t happens...

[phantomexe]

How much longer sony its still down.That tweet was sent at around 8 am its 2 est now

[EikichiOnizuka]

*Goes back to playing Diablo III on Xbox one*

[Whirlwind_Fanfare_08]

I blame this on watchdogs. jk jk

[Clown_Syndr0me]

Pathetic how long this has taken. Ive played plenty of online PC games that get DDOS'd and its fixed so much faster, and then security is improved and it doesnt happen again. Atleast not for ages. Sort it out.

[Dontworrybhappy]

I hate this. Just convinced my friend to get a PS4 and this happens. Shoulda told him to get X1 for Master Chief Collection and Sunset Overdrive. Now i have to take responsibility for Sony's lack of condoms. :(

[RjK311jR]

This happens to me so much... this is the actual issue that was headlining N4G yesterday! At times when the PSN is down it will say your online.. but you cant play the games that check online (DRM) I called 3 months ago when it happened and it seems it keeps happening... It said I was online but said i couldnt connect to the store (loaded to black screen), Most of my digital games i paid for and some of the free ones they gave via psn but there is huge ammounts of DRM in ps4... its system breaking! They couldnt help me for 3 days and probably 5 hours of phone time.. I gave up for a couple hours and tried and it was magically all working again... no one at sony could figure it out and said it was occurring to others but random. I called them back to let them know it was working and they were very appreciative...IDK what else to say but when it happens to you its going to piss you the @#$! off! Trust me! I have all the systems! No reason to hate on one or the other! Heck I already had TLOU so my PS4 has been sitting for awhile.. In fact i didnt know the network was down till I read the recent N4G issues on p24 yesterday and i guess this morning

[ZombieGamerMan]

Any news on when PSN will be back up?

[ChuckTheIceMan]

Still down for me. I guess the definition of "under control" is not the same for everyone.

I hope PSN is back up soon, I really want to play killzone shadowfall multiplayer (with the other 26 players who are still playing this game online).

[sAVAge_bEaST]

GREEN/LiZard/SQuaD/ in 'da house.. <green is the new blue /s>

DDoS.. -just like how M$Live went down by DerpTrolling.

(who gives a $#!t, about these amateur hour shenanigans, LIve @ the apollo)

-skript kiddies.

[Onenyte]

It's nice to know as gamers we can come together against a small minority of cun*s .

No matter what your console is , may it be Xbox or ps, i can't condone it.

IMO give them the least air/ web time as possible with less articles.

[CuddlyREDRUM]

I am coming together against corporate greed, not on behalf of corporations.

[CorruptBoyd]

Down all morning and some single player games. Once again network is down for " Maintenance" and I love how sony trys to fool everyone by saying Sony Computer
Network is under maintenance lol. That's shady Sony tho (;

[poor_cus_of_games]

Yeah it was in maintenance. As they where sorting stuff out about the DDOS attack. Hence being in maintenance. So your point is?

[Rik_Mayall]

The internet is full of bell ends.

[Ryan741]

"Almost" that's an interesting word. I "almost" made it to the bathroom but ended up messing myself. I "almost" made it to the brake pedal....

[qwerty676]

so he said its almost under control now like 7 hours ago.

any progress?

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

it actually went down at around 3am this morning~ i was watching youtube on my ps3 and i thought it was just my internet so i went to sleep lolz i really hope this is resolved soon though. i just got my wizard into paragon yesterday in d3 and was looking forward to getting a monk going online~

[CuddlyREDRUM]

That is what they get for their corporate greed.

[overrated44]

Yeah! How dare they try to provide games and entertainment to consumers for a manageable cost!

[CuddlyREDRUM]

Corporations love folks like you.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

@russell

it's really funny how people like you think they know what's going on, and how things work, but are the most oblivious to everything lolz you need to be slapped by a man.

[CuddlyREDRUM]

What a great comment, and with a "lolz" in it.

[overrated44]

Yeah, corporate greed! Dude thinks he's Tyler Durden or some shit.

[EXID]

and just think, you were bested by someone who uses "lolz".

[beereal360]

Haha