Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Japan blocks PlayStation Network reboot as security precaution

By | May 16, 2011, 7:46am PDT

Summary: Sony announced over the weekend that it would be restoring PlayStation Network service gradually throughout the globe. However, not every country will welcome the service back just yet.

Sony announced over the weekend that it would be restoring PlayStation Network service gradually throughout the globe. However, not every country will welcome the service back just yet.

Japan, the homeland of Sony’s global headquarters, is requiring at lot more than just promises when it comes to future security measures.

After two meetings with Sony execs, Kazushige Nobutani, director of Japan’s Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told Dow Jones Newswires that the Japanese government has asked for the following:

“The first is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference,” he said, adding that he could not provide details on the outstanding issues for security reasons.

The second was in how Sony hoped to regain consumer confidence over personal data such as credit card information.

As much as PlayStation Network subscribers in Japan and around the world want to see PSN restored, these are questions that need to be asked and properly answered before turning the channel back on. While Sony has finally given some more clear-cut answers in the last two weeks (albeit after a long period of relative silence), perhaps it would be wiser for more countries to follow Japan’s lead in this case considering how much sensitive data has been at risk and could be at risk again in the future.

The PlayStation Network is being turned on again in the United States, but not all 50 states are getting access back at once. Initally, only California and states in New England have seen PSN back online.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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hmn.
lokinash 1st Jun
@Toque_3D
Hmn, i for one believe the origional art and focus that comes from these is something that should be recognised
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Message has been deleted.
bargeemike Updated - 18th May 2011
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A New member to the Group, Wecome.
MacNewton 16th May 2011
@bargeemike you're a iHater! Stop with the "Apple fanbois" stuff and focus on the subject.
@MacNewton

An iHater? This is written on an iPad, my all-time favourite portable computing device. Our household has Apple computing devices at a ratio of 2 to 1 over and above non-Apple computers (well,lets be fair, an iPad and a Macbook to a desktop PC!). It's just that I've had to read through so many Apple fanboi posts assuming that anything that does not hail Steve Jobs as god is paid for by Microsoft for the sole purpose of marketing I decided to get my retaliation in first!
@bargeemike Hey now, I access my xBox Live Account from my Mac quite nicely thankyou.
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Apple is bigger than MS on the Fortune 500.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 17th May 2011
You're a little late, Fan Girl. It's already been on in the US for about 24 hours now. Well, have fun... Journalists are a joke at ZDNet.
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hmn.
lokinash 1st Jun
@Toque_3D
Hmn, i for one believe the origional art and focus that comes from these is something that should be recognised
How many states are there in New England anyway?
@darint, quite a few, they got independace ages ago fro0m the real england.
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If Japan doesn't want it on...
PC Ferret 16th May 2011
... maybe we shouldn't either?
@PC Ferret I would have to agree.
It's back on in Indiana, so the "only California and New England" bit is obviously wrong.
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I got PSN back 2 days ago in Washington State and network throughput feels great for navigation. I don't game on the PS3 Console online so I am not sure about that. Conssole in my head are not made for that!!
That's strange I live in Mississippi and I have been online since Saturday. Someone need to check their facts
"Was it off? I hadn't noticed, and didn't miss it."
--America
PSN been back in PA and NJ since late saturday the 14th.
PSN still not on in Ontario Canada. Still got a big japanesse paper weight in my room (May 16) guess it hasn't gotten here yet, oh well just gotta be patient I guess
@jhmassi It was up for me on the 15th in Ontario...
@jhmassi haha yeah I think you're just getting screwed around or something...it was back up for me on the 15th in Ontario too.
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The real question is how Sony managed to buy their way into PCI compliance. They were told on their public forum that their web frontend servers were vulnerable, yet didn't patch it 3 months after the fact... I think that's gross negligence. The US would be well served to follow Japan's lead on this. I'd like to see state Attorneys General going after Sony on gross negligence charges.
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What about MS?
Joe.Smetona Updated - 16th May 2011
@snoop0x7b ... A Sony Administrator's PC was hacked for information with a malicious email. Nothing is going to stop someone when you give them the keys to your car.

Google had the same problem, but it was with 2 Chinese employees' storing data on a Windows notebook that was hit with a zero-day.

Google responded by forbidding the use of MS, except for testing.

The logic here is any system has a weakest link. Good management at Sony would have reacted to the Google issue and removed MS.

I don't see how anyone here can neglect the origin of the problem completely unless you own some MS shares or something.

Anyone can criticize Sony, but if their system was remiss with updates, so are many others. The root cause of the problem is hacking into Microsoft and getting keys to the kingdom. Often forgotten at ZDnet, but if you research these attacks, they always come up the same way. Sony will survive and hopefully get smarter in the process.
@Joe.Smetona Why would it be MS's fault for Sony getting hacked. Making the assumption they even run MS software in the first place.
@Joe.Smetona

Yes, yes, yes, my first post justified!
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Try Linux for a month and find out.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 27th May
reply to MisstreeGB

Really, you don't understand if the Sony Administrator was using Linux, this would have never happened?

Try Linux and get back to me.

And don't use any AV or place any restrictions on browsing.

http://linuxmint.com
Why is it that there is always at least one typo in every ZDNet article that I read on here???

"...AT lot more than just promises..."

AT?!?! Proofread, people! It's the third freaking sentence in the article!
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PSN
tbird264 16th May 2011
How do I join the class-action lawsuit? I have decided to not buy any more SONY products. Look at their track record.

Remember a few years back when they hacked your PC if you listened to their music label? How about that BlueRay crap over HDDVD?

Nothing but CRAP!
PSN is such a joke. its going to get hacked again anyways. Its what people get for buying a ****** console and then wanting to play online with it. Sony hit the retard level of 11 before, its hard to come back from there.
This should be a lesson to all of us, and must generate a government requirement to check out state of xbox live, wii network, facebook, etc.
Lol at zd journalists are a joke. Can we say harsh.
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What does this say about net neutrality?
shaunehunter 16th May 2011
How long until Bittorrent traffic become a "Security Risk"? Come on, how many times has Master Card been hacked? No one blocked them. My debit card was discovered to be copied for the second time last month (nothing was stolen fortunately), should I expect my country to block my bank?

It's ridiculous for Sony to be singled out for this and sets a dangerous precedent in my opinion.
Do any of you people realize that you don't have to be online to play games? jhmassi, why don't you take that paperweight and turn it on? Me, I play games to get away from people, not play with them. Much more satisfying:)
@Kratos12 Good point. I play mine to and have never been online with it. Good thing just because it means my info never got nicked.
Obviously the Japanese government knows whats going on more then us. Yes we should follow there lead.
This happends if you challange hackers =p.
Seriously, do the really think a network is unhackable...?

And I'm not saying this will not happen to Xbox Live (there's almost no chance it'll happen, but still it's possible). And can we stop with the flame wars about which console is better...? I mean, come on, why do those 12 year old kids keep saying "PS3 is better!"? Why? Because it's more expensive? Just stop already. I have both and I like them the same.
i got it back saturday here in tennessee all except playstation store
I am paranoid, lets get that one over and done with now. But.. If these people managed to infiltrate Sony's security so well, isnt it just as possible that they would info on the MAC's (machine address codes, not apple mucs) Could they then not use the playstations (once they have gained access to PSN) to cause more security issues? Or (as we do not know how long access to PSN was breached) put something less than savoury in terms of malicious code, on PSN mailshots? Maybe a time bomb. So when everyone thinks its over, it starts again? With the bona fide security advice Sony must have received, doesn't it seem a bit strange that there are still security concerns? Either the above or they really had something really flimsy in terms of security and needed to purchase and roll out a completely new security package.
Live in Miami.....tried again last night....and nothing. I even tried doing a password reset (you know the one they send an email too ) and then you go to a link....have yet to recieve an email for the link.

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