PlayStation Network Down Indefinitely -- Again

Sony has once again missed its own timeframe to get the Playstation Network
back online, as the company tries to secure its network after a devastating
security breach.

Sony said last Sunday that it expected to bring PSN back up by the end of
the week, but those plans were ruined by a separate attack on Sony Online
Entertainment, the company's massive multiplayer gaming service.

"We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment
servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of
the incredibly complex system," Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold wrote on the
official Playstation Blog. He offered no estimate of when service will be
restored.

The Playstation Network went down on April 19, and couple days later Sony
said it would restore service in "a full day or two." But the problems
turned out to be worse than expected. Hackers had broken into PSN and made
off with names, passwords, e-mails, addresses and birthdays. There's no
evidence that credit card numbers were stolen, but Sony hasn't ruled out the
possibility. Over the last couple of weeks, Sony's been rebuilding the
Playstation Network, and is now testing security internally.

The last week brought some high drama, as a separate attack on Sony Online
Entertainment resulted in the theft of personal information for 24.6 million
users and 20,000 credit card or bank account numbers. Sony told Congress
that it found a file named "Anonymous" in its Sony Online Entertainment
servers, with the text "We Are Legion" inside. This refers to the hacking
group Anonymous, which says it wasn't involved in either attack. Anonymous
had previously attacked Sony's website, and Sony said this attack was either
an intentional or inadvertent diversion.

Also this week, Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer wrote a lengthy
explanation and apology, reflecting Sony's overall change in tone from cold
and distant to apologetic.

This whole thing has been a huge mess from the beginning, but I think most
users would be happy if they could just enjoy Playstation games online
again. Still, Sony can't risk another attack, whichaccording to CNet was
being planned for this weekend. A longer outage is better than a second
outage, so security needs to be airtight before PSN can come back online.

For more information on the outage, check out PC World's PlayStation Network
Hack Timeline. See also "PlayStation Network Security Breach: A Survival
Guide."