PSN Outage Errors: Sony's 3 mistakes from stolen credit card data to lack of status updates

Written by Matt Swider on April 26, 2011

News: PSN is still down. When will PS3 be back online was the question on everyone's mind during the first 5 days. Now, it's Is my credit card info safe?

Today marks the sixth straight day that PSN is down and the first day Sony has admitted that accounts on the network have been compromised by hackers or, as the videogame publisher spins it, "an unauthorized person." This is just one of the three mistakes Sony has made during the PSN outage and, as we learn more about the breach, we're sure there'll be many more.

1. Don't wait SIX DAYS to reveal credit card numbers are at risk.
The first five days of this news story, the focus was on the fact that online gaming was down for everyone due to the network's offline status. But if you thought that PS3 gamers were understandably irked by the multiplayer outage, you should see the blowback you'll hear from them now that their personal data has been stolen.

There's no other way to put it: Waiting six days to email the media and users is irresponsible. Just wait until a PSN user runs to the press with the first case of credit card fraud and blames it on Sony's compromised service. Six days will be the focus of the headlines, and rightly so. Like a car manufacture that gets in trouble for knowing about a vehicle malfunction and failing to disclose it, Sony has a lot of explaining to do about its six-day silence. It's Tuesday. The breach happened Wednesday. It didn't take Sony a week to figure out that data was at risk. In fact, US Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is asking all of the relevant questions in a public letter to the company. Are Toyota-style government hearings to come?

2. Make the bad guys sound bad: "Unauthorized person" means hackers
When the veil of secrecy finally lifted today, the media received an email blast from Sony's public relations department. Subsequently, users were given notice on PlayStation's websites in America, the UK, Germany, Ireland, etc. Good, the word is now worldwide. But don't go around softening the language about the bad guys. "Unauthorized person?" Be blunt. Make the bad guys sound bad.

When Sony tried to take the George Hotz, or geohot, to court, the focus was on the fact that a multi-billion dollar company was suing a 21-year-old iPhone jailbreaker who tapped into PS3 OS and posted a Уhow toФ video online. The focus was not on the fact that this could have dire consequences that could expose everyone's online gaming experience to cheating or worse. That point should have been driven homeЕ relentlessly. At the same time, Sony should have been giving updates on its progress all along, ensuring that these Уevil cheaters and hackersФ would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and that security would be top notch. Instead, the Уcheaters and hackersФ were depicted as boy into homebrew who just wanted his custom OS back. Silent Sony didn't nail the point home in that case and it is repeating the same mistake here.

3. Bring in the experts BEFORE there's a problem - Sony: УEngaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happenedФ Ц not AFTER it happened.

In this world of preemptive strikes, Sony must be as relentless as all of the hackers and identity thieves out there. Bringing aboard an outside security firm is a positive post-hack step, but it would've been easier to have these experts already employed to prevent this incident from happening in the first place. Blocking intrusions and closing loopholes may cost money - it may cost a lot of money Ц and result in charging gamers for PSN in the end. I appreciate that PS3's online service remains free; it's a great way for casual gamers to get into online multiplayer without having to pay Xbox Live's $60 a year subscription. But if that money went toward ramping up security and being a barrier to entry for hackers, then this whole disastrous situation could've been avoided.

Instead, PSN is $0 a year, which is the same amount of trust many gamers have in Sony at this point.

While we wait for more answers, want a free game? We're giving away Homefront for PS3! Click the image below to Like us and comment!

PSN Outage Errors: Sony's 3 mistakes from at-risk credit card data to lack of status updates

News: PSN is still down. When will PS3 be back online was the question on everyone's mind during the first 5 days. Now, it's Is my credit card info safe?