A fan’s complaint about poor PSN customer service blew up to something else entirely, as it seems there is new proof that Sony’s online network services have been compromised.
It all started with a reddit where PSN user kadjar detailed his trial by fire. Email had alerted him that his account had been hacked, with as much as $600 in transactions processed until he had taken his card off his account. Kadjar then contacted Sony and his bank, and this is where things get heated.
The Sony representative he talks to explains their policy will only allow refunds of up to $150, on his PSN account, and if he tried disputing charges with the bank, he could be banned from PSN.
To complicate further, while Sony investigated the matter, he was given a new account that he couldn’t cancel or log on to for six months.
Kadjar was offered a lot of support from fellow PSN users and redditors, but let’s skip ahead to the root of the matter. His case was eventually escalated, and Sony found out that his credentials were compromised, somewhere deep in Europe. He was promised he would get his account back and Sony HQ would revise their policies.
However, that is not the end of the story, as there were three other reported cases within reddit here, here, and here. While Sony has yet to give official word, this information seems to point to the possibility that PSN has been hacked again.
While the 2011 PSN outage is now known as the biggest hack the systems have received, this seems to be a potentially more serious case. This time, there is reason to believe actual credit card fraud has been committed.
As kadjar and other affected users have advised, PSN users should change their passwords and remove their credit cards from PSN, and possibly opt in to two factor authentication. If you were considering a Sony console but don’t have one yet, this might give you reason for pause.
Are you a PSN user? Are you still confident about the security of your account? What do you think Sony could do to improve that security? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
