AfterDawn: Tech news

Sony offering identity-theft protection and insurance for one year to all U.S. PSN users

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 06 May 2011 1:53 User comments (24)

Sony offering identity-theft protection and insurance for one year to all U.S. PSN users Sony Chairman Howard Stringer has apologized for the multi-week outage of the PSN and has offered all affected users in the U.S. one year of free identity-theft protection.
The company will offer $1 million insurance per user, which will cover legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages if your ID is stolen.

Debix has been hired to do the monitoring in the U.S. and it is unclear when international PSN users will get the same treatment.

Sony admitted this week that 101.6 million accounts were compromised by two "highly sophisticated attack" on Sony's servers on April 17th.

If you want the $1 million insurance, you have until June 18th to sign up for Debix's AllClear ID Plus protection service.

Added Stringer (via SFG):



I know this is a frustrating time for all of you. Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber attack we've all experienced and on fixing it.


Sony adds the following if you are interested in signing up:

Please note that we will start sending out activation emails for this program over the next few days, and you will have until June 18th to sign-up and redeem your code. You will need to sign up directly through AllClearID, not on Sony’s websites, and details, including step-by-step instructions for the program, will be emailed to United States PSN and Qriocity Account holders soon.

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24 user comments

16.5.2011 05:12

Wow. That's actually a pretty stand-up thing for Sony to do. I'm impressed.

26.5.2011 05:24

I am dumbfounded. BTW...shouldn't the story have a link to sign up?

Here is the link from the Debix website:
https://www.allclearid.com/sony

[edit]
I just read a bit more closely...you can only get the protection by getting a code that sony is emailing out to the email address associated with the account...and Sony hasn't emailed my anything since the 27th.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 5:31

36.5.2011 05:25

Sony was running unpatched Apache with no firewall for months before breach:
http://goo.gl/fb/GFZJ3

Sony shares dropped 4.5% to their lowest level in seven weeks in Tokyo today (5-6-11):
http://j.mp/j9S6H7

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 6:18

46.5.2011 08:02
lancerx
Inactive

MS should do the same, if they wanted to hack their servers they will do it for sure

56.5.2011 08:53

So, if Phony is emailing out these codes, I wonder if I have to agree to give them my soul before being able to get the coverage?
I hope there isn't a link to click back to the Phony site that makes you agree to 'Terms of Service' to get your code.

66.5.2011 08:55

That sounds like an amazing offer, well done Sony! You're my boy!

However, I live in the UK and I sincerely hope that we get this opportunity.


76.5.2011 09:36

What about those customers not living in the USA? Is there a hierarchy of customers that are more important to Sony than others? Does identity fraud not happen in Europe? Sony just seem to be a load of Edited with no thought for their customers rights or security. This will be a public relations disaster.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:35

86.5.2011 10:40
Joepet2000
Unverified new user

Way to go Sony. Make 300M Americans happy and piss off the rest of the world (including the Edited).

Who's running this company....

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:30

96.5.2011 10:45

Of course. Just Americans. Suddenly the rest of the world isn't important?

106.5.2011 11:00

we americans are a sue happy group the rest of the world will be happy if the info just dosnt get leaked... its a no brainer to think how many people around the world already hate americans so why not offer the carrot that would be mitagating damages befor they happen and if you didnt sign up then its your fault sign up time was ten mins ago andnow the polls are closeed.. have a gooood day...

116.5.2011 12:17

So are they offering this service for FREE?

126.5.2011 13:15
allamerican
Unverified new user

Originally posted by Joepet2000:
Way to go Sony. Make 300M Americans happy and piss off the rest of the world (including the Edited).

Who's running this company....
You know what, Edited you limy Edited/euro Edited.
Seal Team Six is on speed dial and AD was more then happy
to provide your IPA.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:18

136.5.2011 13:50
Joepet2000
Unverified new user

Originally posted by allamerican:
Originally posted by Joepet2000:
Way to go Sony. Make 300M Americans happy and piss off the rest of the world (including the Edited).

Who's running this company....
You know what, Edited you limy Edited/euro Edited.
Seal Team Six is on speed dial and AD was more then happy
to provide your IPA.
At my age, I'll dead in 10 years before they find me. Hint, I live next door.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:22

146.5.2011 13:56

Originally posted by allamerican:
Originally posted by Joepet2000:
Way to go Sony. Make 300M Americans happy and piss off the rest of the world (including the Edited).

Who's running this company....
You know what, Edited you limy Edited/euro Edited.
Seal Team Six is on speed dial and AD was more then happy
to provide your IPA.
Who let Allamerican out of the trailer park? Was it to go and visit his half-sister on Death Row at the State Penn or was it to visit his retard cousin Cletus. Better get back to your trailer Leeroy cos some good old boy is giving it to your woman.
Come back ya all!!! Allamerican is an embarrassment to his country.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:23

156.5.2011 14:40

nice one Sony there giving a choice of 4 PSP games & 5 PS3 games as well very generous & anonymous if your standing up for our rights can you help us with the scum who stole peoples IDs. there doing it for Europe as well the ID protection.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 5:21

166.5.2011 15:14

Originally posted by Frogfart:
Originally posted by allamerican:
Originally posted by Joepet2000:
Way to go Sony. Make 300M Americans happy and piss off the rest of the world (including the Edited).

Who's running this company....
You know what, Edited you limy Edited/euro Edited.
Seal Team Six is on speed dial and AD was more then happy
to provide your IPA.
Who let Allamerican out of the trailer park? Was it to go and visit his half-sister on Death Row at the State Penn or was it to visit his retard cousin Cletus. Better get back to your trailer Leeroy cos some good old boy is giving it to your woman.
Come back ya all!!! Allamerican is an embarrassment to his country.
His mother, his sister-in-law, and his girlfriend are all waiting for him...all one of them.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:32

176.5.2011 15:29

Originally posted by Mrguss:

Sony was running unpatched Apache with no firewall for months before breach:
http://goo.gl/fb/GFZJ3

Sony shares dropped 4.5% to their lowest level in seven weeks in Tokyo today (5-6-11):
http://j.mp/j9S6H7
I will quote someone that already answered the "unpatched Apache with no firewall" misinformation ~

Quote:
The professor who got all his information from forums... Not from any hands on knowledge or experience.

From ~ http://www.industrygamers.com/news/playstation-network-disaster-key-parts-had-no-firewall-installed/

"Worse yet, Spafford noted that key parts of PSN actually ran on Apache servers that "were unpatched and had no firewall installed." He said that this was known because of comments in a forum frequently visited by Sony employees."

Check that last sentence. And these forum posts were from four months ago. Sony employees frequently visit NeoGAF, that doesn't mean the information was provided by them or that the information suddenly becomes valid.

Also, Sony already provided documentation that shows that they had firewalls in place: http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Diagram-Hack-600x476.jpg

What Sony actually said was that the vulnerability was known "to the world" - i.e. it was not a zero-day exploit - but that they themselves were not aware of it, or that it might be an issue. Now it might be fair to call Sony ignorant for not being aware of this, however there are SO MANY exploits that are "known to the world" and it's probably near-impossible to protect against all of them, or even know about them.

But all that doesn't matter as you are completely off topic. You have been doing that all week and it stops now. Please stick to the topic at hand. This is your only warning.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:33

186.5.2011 15:38

Originally posted by Frogfart:
What about those customers not living in the USA? Is there a hierarchy of customers that are more important to Sony than others? Does identity fraud not happen in Europe? Sony just seem to be a load of Edited with no thought for their customers rights or security. This will be a public relations disaster.
Seek out information before jumping to conclusions (from the Euro PlayStation.Blog)~

Quote:
Both Kazuo Hirai and Sir Howard Stringer have stated that we will be offering identity theft protection for those affected by the malicious attack on PlayStation Network and many of you may have seen the details of the service available in North America.

As I have explained previously, creating a similar offering for the many countries within the SCEE region is a very complicated process. Each country has a different way of handling identity theft; some offer relatively sophisticated services whilst others are much more modest.

We are currently in the process of identifying how we manage this situation and once the programme is ready to launch, we will provide details of exactly which services are available in each country and explain how to sign up. We hope to do this early next week.

Also, look out for more information on the rest of our Welcome Back programme, including which free content you will be eligible for. We will be offering PSN users the opportunity to select two PS3 games from a list of five, as well as offering PSP users the opportunity to choose two games from a list of four. We will let you know exactly what games are available very soon.

Please be assured that we are continuing to work around the clock to have some PlayStation Network and Qriocity services restored and will provide you with specific details shortly.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 May 2011 @ 3:44

196.5.2011 15:44

Hurray for Canada! Oh wait....

206.5.2011 15:52

How crap of you Sony to not offer the same to the rest of the planet. Not everyone lives in the US but we can still sue you shits

216.5.2011 16:05

just give me the 1mil xD

226.5.2011 16:14

Originally posted by KillerBug:
I am dumbfounded. BTW...shouldn't the story have a link to sign up?

Here is the link from the Debix website:
https://www.allclearid.com/sony

[edit]
I just read a bit more closely...you can only get the protection by getting a code that sony is emailing out to the email address associated with the account...and Sony hasn't emailed my anything since the 27th.
I didn't get my email till the 28th.... and the article said Sony will be emailing the activation codes over the next few days. Sony must not have you at the top of their list for handouts. Sony really is doing a great job trying to take care of their customers on this one. As far as I know no one has had any unauthorized charges on their account and Sony still offers this protection for everyone. Whether they are just covering their ass or not it doesn't really mater. They are doing what they need to do in light of the current situation.

236.5.2011 21:27

I would just like my Other O/S restored.......

249.5.2011 10:34

Any one know where Canadians can get news if they are getting anything . I have done playstation.ca nothing tried a few other things but not seeeing anything dealing with hacking or what not.
I want to know if they will give us canadians anything or if I should jump on this lawsuit that is brewing in Canada

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