Following on from the news that the Sony PlayStation Network (PSN) had been hacked and confidential user details had been stolen, including credit card data, the latest update is that the details that were stolen have now reportedly appeared for sale on the internet.

A group declaring themselves as responsible for the hacking of the PSN are now apparently posting on forums around the internet that the whole PSN database is for sale to ‘the highest bidder’, according to a security expert at TrendMicro. Details including users names, addresses, telephone numbers, email details, date of birth and credit card information were stolen as part of the electronic hacking of the PSN databases and details such as card expiry dates and the security number on the back of credit cards (CVC number) are apparently now for sale by the hackers, although Sony have responded to the rumours stating that security numbers from credit cards are not amongst the stolen data:

“your credit card security code (sometimes called a CVC or CSC number) has not been obtained because we never requested it from anyone who has joined the PlayStation Network or Qriocity, and is therefore not stored anywhere in our system While we do ask for CCV codes, we do not store them in our database..”

If the rumour is true and these details are indeed for sale then this could clearly be a further huge mess for Sony and it’s customers to try and clear up.

For many users, the initial reaction to the Sony Playstation Network (PSN) and Qriocity services going ‘offline’ on April 20th was one of disappointment and irritation. Many were optimistic that the service would be resumed quickly though, presuming maintenance or a small glitch were to blame for the downtime.

The optimism ended officially on the 23rd of April however, when it became apparent that the reason for the outage on the PSN was a lot more serious than a simple glitch, as Sony themselves declared on their own blog – the reason that the PSN was offline was because there had been an “external intrusion” to their systems.

“An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”

Although at that time, no further explanation regarding the ‘intrusion’ was given, days later Sony finally admitted that the intrusion was actually an electronic hacking attempt that had successfully taken user details including names, addresses and more seriously, credit card details from the Sony databases.

“..between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network.”

Sony are now working to ‘save the situation’ and the closure of the PSN was their first step. However, users are now left wondering firstly why their details were left accessible to a hacking attempt in the first place secondly, why Sony took several days to admit that these details had been stolen and thirdly, what damage will be done by the theft of their personal and financial details.Credit card companies/financial institutions have been quick to reassure affected customers that they should be covered in the event of any fraudulent use of their details however, the whole event is causing much anguish amongst PlayStation Network users, understandably.

As news comes in regarding the hacking of the PSN and the fallout from it, we will update our readers. In the meantime Sony suggest following them on Twitter for updates on the situation:  Follow – @PlayStation or @PlayStationEU.

It isn’t all that long since ‘hackers’ and certian parts of the PlayStation 3 community were rejoicing at the ability of devices such as PSFreedom, PSGroove, PSJailbreak to allow homebrew games from an external hard drive. Well, Sony have stepped in to dampen the spirits of those hoping for a PS3 that could eventually play their ‘back ups’ or pirated copies of games by releasing a firmware update for the PlayStation 3 that stops such devices in their tracks.

Exophase has confirmed that “all variants of the USB-hub emulating exploit (PSFreedom, PSGroove, PSJailbreak) are no longer functional”.

Sony themselves aren’t saying much except to confirm on their official blog that firmware update 3.42 “includes additional security features”.  Time will tell if this update will really be enough to stop piracy on the PS3, hackers don’t give up that easily.

via techradar