PlayStation Network credit card info appears to be safe: 'No unauthorized activity relating to Sony'

"It looks like the beleaguered Sony finally caught a break. The company, which has struggled for over a week following a hacker attack that stole massive amounts of player information, says that it looks as though user credit card information remains secure and encrypted. It turns out that Sony had encrypted some personal info but not all of it.

Gamespot also reports that several financial companies, including MasterCard, WellsFargo and American Express, have witnessed "no unauthorized activity relating to Sony.""

[leogets]

Hahaha quality. So the story about maxed out credit cards and wotnot is pure lies. The internet man, its. The mother of all lies. Time for sony to flip the bird huh : D

[-Alpha]

Lies, confusion, rumors, speculation-- it's clear with the number of articles/opinion pieces getting submitted that it's hard to discern truth from fact and to keep up with what's happening.

Until we get official answers the people submitting articles are going to try and take any information and try to make a story out of it-- whether it's based on good information or not.

Then you have the lying fanboys, the irresponsible reporters from no-name sites, the speculation... ugh

[sdtarm]

and like always fanboys on N4G jumping to conclusions only to make a big deal out of nothing

[Will-UK]

@Alpha-Male I agree
There has been a lot of scare mongering which has caused many to overreact over this issue.

Some of these incidents could be credible however im sure most are mere coincidence and scare mongering does not help.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

''Lies, confusion, rumors, speculation'' Only on N4G with those Negative Multiple accounts.

[ReservoirDog316]

Yeah this is why we had to keep a leveled head while no name websites without sources scream to the skies that they know something know one else knows. It's the internet. We should be used to this stuff.

edit: It's good to know that, as long as no CC#s were stolen, this will eventually get go away. With the earthquake in japan, something as bad as 70 million CC#s getting stolen could've realistically bankrupt sony.

[sikbeta]

So, lies end now, guess the people who was preparing everything to sue Sony over empty credit cards and the such, missed their chance, lol...

[v1c1ous]

i wouldn't say they are lies. maybe just CC info stolen and the owners, given the PSN's issues, decided to check their purchasing history and noticed fraudulent spending and maybe mistakenly assumed it was direct cause.

consequently my friend decided to check his CC cause of the PSN issue and just discovered fraudulent charges. not necessarily related, but good thing he caught wind of it now.

[-Alpha]

I'm pretty sure some of the fanboys who don't even own a PS3 are spreading falsities. Some are just doing it for fun, and others may legitimately have been charged via correlation/causation. Not to say that everybody is lying, but it seems mighty convenient that all these people suddenly have fraudulent charges around the time of this incident.

It's just hard to believe anything considering the motivation of some of the reporters. Best to just wait IMO, if people were hacked I'm sure Sony would confirm it or more people would come out. If the report is just a few people without proof then I simply don't believe them.

[jerethdagryphon]

whereas those of us with paranoia issues reacted and hit out panic buttons i now have new cards on there way and all passwords relating to my psn have been changed

theres nothing i can do about name and address without a klot of work so ill keep an eye out on stuff

[gamingdroid]

Imagine the headline: "PSN hack caused me to discover fraudulent charges on my credit card!"

That's hilarious and would be very ironic.

@jerethdagryphon

If you are in the U.S., your adress and name is public information already.

The only thing that is private is your user name, password and of course Date of Birth.

All three pieces of information are important, because people tend to use the same user name and password on multiple sites (I do despite knowing the danger, but financial stuff is completely separated) and the DOB is often used to verify you by some companies.

Expect a lot of spam in your mailbox in addition though.

[DaTruth]

Then I guess they should be thanking Sony! If this didn't happen, they wouldn't have checked their CCs and wouldn't know for a much longer time!

[xAlmostPro]

They've truely had it the worst from the shitty media here in the UK..

Acting like every single person lost their details and were having huge debts created in their names.

Can not stand the media over here

[DaTruth]

This is the crap I've been talking about! Western media spewing all kinds of garbage without bothering to check facts when it has to do with successful foreign companies in hopes of propping up their own economies. Protectionist media: the newest Propaganda.

[xAlmostPro]

@DaTruth yeah man. Even Watchdog a show which is supposed to state nothing but facts to ensure we as customers know the truth about situations were using rumours and blatantly false information on the issue while covering it.

I even emailed that the show should be tested with it's own methods because they clearly used false infomation and provided them with sources etc.

Not that it'll make a difference or make them change their mind but yeah, it's a shambles.

[Master of Unlocking]

@ almostpro
Only one thing worse in England than the bad weather: the tabloids.
The Sun, Daily Mail & co. can kiss my @$$.

[Will-UK]

Hopefully the PSN returns with much more robust security and this does not occur again.

When sony find the culprits theirs going to be serious punishments.

[elite-shot]

I PRAY THIS IS TRUE!
I can't bare people having something bad to say about sony... :L not that i get that butt hurt but it's annoying :)

[MrBeatdown]

Not lies. Just idiots who don't understand that out of millions of PSN users, some are bound to fall victim to CC fraud, whether it is Sony's fault or not.

And call me crazy, but if this data was stolen a week or more ago, and we haven't seen much come of it, I doubt we will. A lot of the critical info like passwords and CC numbers is pretty time sensitive. Waiting a week means that passwords will be changed, and credit cards will be canceled, or closely monitored. Anyone who has this information, if they have it at all, would want to capitalize on it immediately, not wait until a lot of the most sensitive info becomes useless.

Sure, our emails, names, and PSN IDs will always be accurate, but that's only helpful when it comes to spam and phishing, which is nowhere near as damaging as exposed passwords and CC info. Seeing as how nothing significant has come from this, it makes me think the hacker doesn't have the data, or had no intention of using it. If they were smart enough to pull this off and had the intention of selling/using it, they would have known to strike while the iron is hot, not wait until the value of the data diminishes.

[jke82]

well said mrbeatdown there is a huge lack of thought like this on n4g

[zeddy]

credit card info is safe but emails accounts arent thats one way they might get at you.

[ziggurcat]

right and i could have easily found out any of that information by doing a google search.

[ziggurcat]

not necessarily lies, but definitely no correlation to the PSN situation.

purely coincidental/circumstantial.

[TBM]

the US media is good for using scare tactics when a bad situation happens. i read am bitmob article today and i realize the most important piece of info that this hackers didnt get was my SS# because Sony never asked for it.

besides i didn't even panic when PSN went down as long as our CC or DC numbers were encrypted, and SS# were never used to make our accounts i just went about my daily routine.

[Bigpappy]

I think this is very goon news for users. Now I hope that the hackers are as caring with peoples personal info. Credit Cards you can just cancel if caught on time, personal info is a bigger issue, because it can be used to open new card accounts and create false documents and so forth. PSN users are still at the mercy of the hackers. I don't think these hackers ever intended to do anything with the info though (at least that is what I am hoping for). Innocent people don't need to be hurt in this Sony VS Hacker war, even if some of them are dumb ass loyalist who don't understand what they are faced with.

[Neo Nugget]

Well it's not like they have your Social Security #. Kinda hard to do much damage without that.

[blackburn5]

What are you taking about? You can't use the data on PSN to make new credit cards and falsify documents. By that logic I could take the phone book to get your name, address and phone number and use those. All the credit card info was encrypted and everyone who has been warned has either cancelled their debit and credit cards to get new ones or are watching their credit cards like a hawk. And once we get PSN back we change our passwords and they can't use our accounts. So what, my trolling friend are you blathering about? @ Neo Nugget Exactly, thank you for making sense instead of using mob mentality

[mirumu]

If the hackers extracted data from the database then they have it permanently. Changing your password isn't going to change that.

But yes, I wouldn't have thought the data in the PSN account would be enough to run around and get new credit cards and falsify documents. Someone malicious could still probably cause some chaos with it, but it's hard to see what the hackers would gain from doing that.

[Bigpappy]

I hope you are right. I do not have a PSN account, nor do I have details on what was vulnerable. All I can remember, Sony saying, from the top of my head, is that addresses, email, passwords, login info might have been taken. I would just like for people to be aware that the more info people have one you the more likely it is to get your ID stolen. They do not need your social, and if they have enough pieces of personal info on you, they can get that too. I am not trying to scare or panic anyone, but you should place close attention to your physical and email, as well as open those credit card offers to see they are pre-approved, before tossing them. Don't just sit there and play games unless you have nothing to loose.

[ddurand1]

cheers

[offdawall]

PSN is fine ... there is like 75 million regestered users an NO one lost any money , this is just media .... now sony is just taking their time an doing wat is best which is strenghtening the security .

[ionlyneedonebubble]

It was obvious from the start the hackers didn't do this for the purpose of CC info. They just wanted to show another corporation whose boss.

[v1c1ous]

how do you know?

sometimes hackers wait for months till the heat dies down until they start striking. some hackers dont even use the info, they instead sell them to other hackers.

this process can take time. in fact, you might not even start seeing the damage till half a year from now.

[mirumu]

Yes, unfortunately that is possible. Many here are being a bit quick to celebrate.

Still, this is a good sign. There hasn't been massive credit card theft already. Hopefully it stays that way.

[SpLinT]

only because they were encrypted . I consider it a win for Sony and a fail for the hackers

[mirumu]

We don't know anything about the encryption unfortunately. The encryption on the PS3 had some fatal flaws that made it very easy to break so Sony's track record here isn't great. Hopefully the encryption here is much stronger. Time will tell.

[labaronx]

yeah and know those same corporations, get to send their lobbyist to capital hill, and urge for stronger laws limiting our freedoms even more

not arguing but how does any off this help any of us when big business decides whats law

[Ruggadagod]

like i said, this is just another test of the playstation brand and sony. this is nothing new. people always try to find ways to make them look bad even when they did their part.

[boss_killa]

A lot of people are spreading lies and rumours to add fuel to the fire. Mostly from Sony haters.

Watch the usual Sony haters come in and post their stupid comments.

[OcelotRigz]

Great to hear something positive at last out of this whole fiasco.
More and more it sounds like these guys just hacked the system just to prove they could, or some other inane reason, rather than to make money.

[harrisk954]

The company saw its shares drop 4.5% today on the Tokyo exchange to $27.71.

It's a good time to buy Sony stock!

[maniacmayhem]

excellent news, but i'm going to still change some of my info when it goes back up. just to be safe.

[maverick40]

I am very happy for Sony. Jesus the thought of Sony going out of the gaming business.....

[Bathyj]

WHAT ?!?

But what about 77 million users?

24 BILLION DOLLARS.

I've been lead to believe Sonys whole company, not just the Playstation brand was going to end.

I'm starting to think N4G DOESNT have all the answers when it comes to corporate manoeuvres and high finance.

And, yes, we pretty much all saw this coming. Out of the one hundred articles I've read in the last week, none had any facts backing up their wild accusations. They were all speculation and worst case scenario scaremongering. FKN sad internet. FKN sad.

Can can I point out again, you're still more likely to be killed by lightening statistically speaking than being the one out of 77 million to be ripped off. Look it up.

[Exydoz]

I was never worried and still ain't! Never believed all the fraud-stories poping up all over the net in the last couple of days. Sony never said the debit card info had been compromised, only that they couldn't say it wasn't either but now they just did so that's great news! Now get the PSN back up so I can play some black ops multiplayer!

[M-Easy]

Lets see this story hit the top of the front page.

[TBM]

sorry dude you know it won't because it's positive news in favor of Sony and its fans.

[coryok]

so pretty much all the news articles who were claiming to have fraudulent charges against their credit cards were lying to their readers, nice.