PlayStation Network (PSN) update for April 29, 2011

published April 29th, 2011 | categories: Companies, Netflix, PlayStation Network | all categories

Anticipated Date for Partial Service Restoration

Sony’s PlayStation Network blogs have stuck to their guns about a partial service restoration occurring sometime on or about May 3, 2011. No further details are available.

Credit Card Data

Rumors are swirling around the internet that a user is attempting to sell a portion of the credit card database that may or may not have been stolen from the PSN. A senior researcher at Trend Micro, Kevin Stephens, has reported seen conversations on internet hacker forums where an individual was trying to sell a copy of 2.2 million credit card users information. The asking price was reportedly $100,000. The database apparently holds information such as: fname, lnam, address, zip, country, phone, email, password, dob, ccnum, CVV2, exp date of customer’s credit cards.

If you suspect that you data has been stolen, Sony provides the following guidance for you.

Q: What steps should I take at this point to help protect my personal data?
A: For your security, we encourage you 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. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well. To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.

Will my Game Data Remain the Same on the PSN?

Sony published Part 2 of their Question and Answers late Thursday, April 28, 2011, regarding user game status once the network is restored. Sony is still evaluating what type of compensation they will provide users, if any, for the PSN downtime that began on Wednesday, April 20, 2011.

Q: Will our download history/friends list/settings be affected by the PSN downtime?
A: No, they will not.

Q: Will trophies that were earned in single-player offline games during the outage be intact when the service resumes?
A: These trophies are intact and will be re-synched when the network is once again operational.

Q: Will my PS+ cloud saves be retrievable?
A: Yes, once PSN is restored.

Q: What if we have a subscription to PS3 MMOs DC Universe Online or Free Realms? Will we get compensation for that?
A: From Sony Online Entertainment: “We apologize for any inconvenience players may have experienced as a result of the recent service interruption. As a global leader in online gaming, SOE is committed to delivering stable and entertaining games for players of all ages. To thank players for their patience, we will be hosting special events across our game portfolio. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums.”

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.

Netflix

Netflix is still functional for me as of late last night, Thursday April 28, 2011. As seen in my video below, you need to power through the prompts and basically ignore the PSN screens that push errors.

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