Finally… I mean, first off you gotta feel for the IT project team at Sony that got tasked with this one. I’d buy ’em a few pizzas, Sir Stringer, stat. Hats off to ’em, and hopefully this means that the PlayStation Network (including Qriocity) and Sony Online Entertainment systems are also more secure now that they’re both back up and running. Sony Corporation Executive Deputy President, Kazuo Hirai, released a video message updating consumers on the steps Sony has taken to remedy the situation, but the gist of it is, the network will be coming back online over the next few days.
Again, Kudos to the team that tackled this issue after the network did, or did not, get hacked by some furious smart young folks with time on their hands and serious anarchy issues.
Now, be patient, because Sony, smartly, is phasing this in from state-to-state in the US. To gain access to the PSN and other services, you’ll have to download and install a firmware update, and re-register with Sony. The firmware update (v3.61) is mandatory prior to re-registering, and is available now.
It’s also worth remembering that Sony is offering ID-theft insurance (caveat emptor) and offering consumers, fans, slaves to Black Ops a freebie in the form of a month’s worth of PlayStation Plus.
Still, what have we learned here? Not to necessarily trust our most personal information (mainly financial) online via the “cloud”, where it’s stored on vast server farms out there, somewhere… always with the potential threat of an enterprising young teenager, or worse, ready to hack on in and steal what’s there for the taking? I’m not sure that’s even a possibility in today’s brave new world, where what we once valued most (our personal and financial information) is slowly being leeched from us for entertainment’s sake… We seem to be ready to jump on in whenever a demand to set up an account pops up and requests our credit card info, our birthdates, our social security numbers. But hey, at least we won’t be bored silly for yet another week… we get our Vudu, our Hulu, our Netflix, our multi-player slaughter fest, virtual worlds to get lost in, and awards a-plenty. Those damn awards better be there on the reboot, huh… or Sony will have hell to pay, most certainly… but, um, isn’t that attitude what led to this mess in the first place… that somehow, we “own” the games we’re buying, that our access to the vast playland Sony and others have setup is ours to stake a claim to… that, somehow, we have more right to it than the creators themselves?
Game on.
