The real reason PSN is down.

I've contacted a moderator at PSX-scene and he had this to say:

"Ok, I've seen a bunch of speculation of why people think PSN is down, and I thought I should just post what the community knows in comparison to what Sony is telling everyone. The truth is, there was a new CFW (custom firmware) released known as Rebug ( http://rebug.me). It essentially turns a retail console into a dev console (not fully, but gives you a lot of the same options that usually dev's only have access to). Anyway, this new CFW was quickly figured out to give CFW users access to the PSN network again via the dev networks. With a little manipulation of the URL's through a proxy server you could get your hacked console back online. Not that big of a deal, right? Well, it also turns out that some people over at NGU found out that you could provide fake CC# info and the authenticity of the information was never checked as you were on Sony's private developer PSN network (essentially a network that Sony trusted). What happened next was extreme piracy of PSN content. Sony realizing the issue here shut down the network. Now, before you go freaking out about the latest information posted about Kotaku, no ones personal information was accessible via this hack. Not to say they couldn't get it, but no one is admitting to it being available. Anyway, that's the real reason for the PSN downtime. Sony is now rebuilding all of it's PSN servers to be more secure and (hopefully) make sure the CFW users cannot get online anymore."

It seems Sony basically needs to restart all of their servers and make them more secure. Quite impressive hackers, quite impressive indeed.

[zeksta]

Andrew, you've gotten the right information I'll admit, but Rebug has actually been out in the open for about a month now, if Sony needed to take action that could have a long time ago, but they didn't until now.

I know of NGU and in-fact I'm a member there only to see of information daily and understand both prospectives, and I can tell you that Rebug is not the cause of the issue, it's most surely someone actually hacking into the system externally (Dare I say Anonymous?).

Not to mention you've contacted a Moderator over a PSX-Scene, you'd actually get a better response if you were to contact a hacker, a moderator is just someone that looks after the site, sure he'd be informed, but he's only Human so under-knowledge of what's happening around him would apply.

[FamilyGuy]

This is kinda stupid, dev still have access to the network, so if rebug was making ps3s have dev abilities or whatever then those systems that were initially causing the problems would STILL be online.

This information just doesn't add up.

[Statix]

I have doubts about this theory. If extreme piracy of the Playstation Store was the main concern, then why didn't Sony just shut down the Playstation Store? Why did they shut down the WHOLE Playstation Network?

[slaton24]

because the hackers could still access the store with dev systems...by closin down the network no one not even hacked systems would b able to sign in therefor stop hacking while they figure out whats wrong fix it and return us our pride and joy known as PSN

[Statix]

So why not disable the store for both dev systems AND end-user systems?

[nycrekid]

Who the hell cares why it happened. The only thing that matters is that they are working on it.

[outwar6010]

sony sucks 5 days of no online over this!!

[NicSage]

Sony does not suck, Hackers suck. Blame them.

[Otheros00]

Rebug should NEVER allow dev PSN access. It doesn't make sense for normal users like us to go on dev servers.

[Mister_G]

That's due to a cost cutting thing. In the past there was proper dev kits, totally different beasts from the retail models.

But now, the hardware is the same (I believe), just different FW.

Once you run CFW you unlocked lots of stuff normal user shouldn't have access to.

This is why CFW is so dangerous for Sony. It's not just game piracy, it's the whole network.

Hence the shutdown.

[ClimateKaren]

I make anime music videos, if anyone is interested in writing an article on my opinion of why this happened shoot me a line.

[JayWheelz]

They should have had a disaster plan ready for any situation.
There shouldn't be any time that a company as large as them being as un-ready for network issue.

[chewmystink]

HaHa eat it !!!
Hope it continues to be a problem, won't be so arrogant on the next system will you $ony.
You don't dictate to us what we can and can't have, power to the people !!!