Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Hacker forums suggest PlayStation data is up for sale

Trevor Mogg
By

sony-psn-playstation-networkAn article posted late Thursday on The New York Times website pointed toward increasing evidence that hackers had gained possession of the credit card details of millions of Sony PlayStation gamers.

The news follows the recent attack on Sony’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity, which prompted Sony to temporarily shut the services down. It is thought that the personal data of more than 75 million users was stolen by hackers who infiltrated the system. The sensitive information included names, addresses, dates of birth and passwords.

Recommended Videos

The Times‘ Nick Bilton says that according to security researchers, recent discussions on several underground Internet forums seemed to suggest that hackers had gained possession of as many as 2.2 million credit card numbers belonging to Sony customers.

Related

The senior threat researcher at security firm Trend Micro, Kevin Stevens, said that the forums indicated the hackers had a database containing the personal information, and that they were hoping to sell it “for upwards of $100,000.” Apparently the hackers had even tried to sell the information back to Sony, but they didn’t receive a reply from the Japanese electronics company.

“Although several researchers confirmed the forum discussions, it was impossible to verify their contents or the existence of the database,” The Times‘ report says.

Sony has claimed that the credit card data is encrypted, but Mathew Solnik, a security consultant with iSEC Partners, a firm that monitors hacker forums, had this to say: “Sony is saying the credit cards were encrypted, but we are hearing that the hackers made it into the main database, which would have given them access to everything, including credit card numbers.” Researchers think that hackers could have gained access to Sony’s servers by first hacking the PS3 games console, Solnik told The Times.

This week a lawsuit was filed against Sony for the security breach of its PlayStation Network and loss of user data. In a post on its PlayStation blog on Tuesday, Sony warned gamers to be “especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information.”

It’ll be interesting to see just how many PlayStation gamers return to the network once it’s back up and running. The answer to the following question, posted on the PlayStation blog on Thursday, may prove decisive (once the company actually decides):

“Q: Will there be a goodwill gesture for the time we haven’t been able to utilize PSN/Qriocity?

A: We are currently evaluating ways to show appreciation for your extraordinary patience as we work to get these services back online.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
PlayStation spent 2023 setting up dominoes. But will they fall in 2024?
A PS5 sits on a table.

2023 has already become a strong contender for the best year in gaming ever (at least when it comes to newly released games), but we've yet to see how it'll be remembered for PlayStation long-term. It currently stands as an experimental year filled with massive gambles that we won't see the results of until 2024 at the earliest.

From an outside perspective, 2023 might've seemed like PlayStation was resting on its laurels. With more hit third-party releases than most people could reasonably handle hitting on a near monthly cadence, the average PlayStation fan was likely content with "just" the utterly fantastic Marvel's Spider-Man 2 from the first-party side. In reality, this year Sony has set up a series of dominoes that, depending on how they fall, could very well determine its future -- for better or worse. Even though a few of its efforts are trending in the wrong direction, or at least have the community concerned, there's no turning the ship now.
Heavy on hardware
Sony put out more hardware this year than perhaps any other year in its history. We started off with the PlayStation VR2, got the surprise slim models of the PS5, the PlayStation Portal most recently, and will close out the year with its impressive Adaptive Controller. Of those, PSVR2 is the largest dice roll the company is currently watching play out. VR, in general, still only caters to a niche audience, and for as powerful and cutting-edge as the tech inside Sony's headset really is, that small audience is automatically cut by being tied to the PS5 install base willing to pay another massive entry fee. Despite all the cards stacked against it, Sony could pull an ace from its sleeve to justify the entire experiment: first-party games.

Read more
Our favorite PlayStation games of 2023: Spider-Man, Final Fantasy, and more
Spider-Man and Miles Morales stand in front of a Best PS5 Games 2023 logo.

With the video game industry as busy as it is these days, there's rarely ever a "bad" year for any console. Even in a less busy year, platforms like Xbox still tend to have highlights in exciting indie games. That was true for PlayStation this year, which continued its strong momentum this generation despite only having a handful of big-ticket games.

While not every big PS5 exclusive thrilled this year, there were a lot of strong experiences to dive into. Developers got more mileage than ever out of the system's beefy tech specs, while PlayStation VR2 gave the platform some creative, immersive experiences. That's not to mention a handful of indies and third-party releases that Sony locked down as console exclusives for a time. That list of heavy hitters even included Baldur's Gate 3 for a few short months. In reflecting on another great year for PS5, we've highlighted seven games that stuck with us this year. Some were certainly divisive, but all of them helped give Sony's powerhouse system some extra depth in a crowded year.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Read more
Here’s how to get your PlayStation 2023 wrap-up
The PlayStation wrap up logo.

Every year, PlayStation lets you take a look back at your year of gaming on its platform. You'll get stats like number of hours played, top played games, trophies earned, and more. While you are free to get your stats right now, they will continue to be updated until January 12, 2024, so you can get the full picture of your year. What's new this time around is the addition of digital cards you can view and share with your friends that highlight some of your most impressive stats, as well as a free avatar and PlayStation Stars digital collectible. Here's how to get yours today.
Your PlayStation 2023 wrap-up

To get your own personalized PlayStation wrap-up, simply head to Sony's wrapup web page and sign in to your PlayStation Network account. If you would prefer, you can also opt to use this link to have Sony email you a breakdown directly. In either case, you may have to be patient when trying to access your stats since it seems like the servers are having trouble keeping up with the number of people attempting to access it at once.

Read more