Posted on 05.22.2011 at 03:42, by Anoop Gantayat

Sony will restart the Japanese PlayStation Network service some time this month, Nikkei reports today. The service has been down since late last month.

PSN users outside of Japan have had access to parts of the service since last week. As detailed yesterday in Asahi, delays in Japan were brought on by requests from the government and credit card companies for more information from Sony. In Japan, card companies would be held accountable in the event of card misuse. In America, Sony has a contract in place with an insurer to cover possible damages.

Nikkei reports that Sony will give its member information, including name and credit card number, to credit card companies in order to allow them to closely watch for misuse. The site notes that Sony has 12.3 million credit card numbers on file both in and out of Japan.

Nikkei did not list a specific date for the restart of the service. It also did not mention what items will be on offer for Japanese players as part of Sony's "Welcome Back" gift package.

Sony [SNE 27.80 -0.27 (-0.96%) ] has blocked user logins on all PlayStation Websites after reports began to circulate on gaming sites and on hacker message boards about an exploit — essentially, a hole or oversight in the system's security that hackers can use to gain access — that could allow third-parties to take control of user accounts.

The exploit, first exposed by Nyleveia.com, apparently allows third parties to change the password on accounts by utilizing the user's email address and date of birth — data that was stolen from over 77 million PlayStation accounts in the initial cyber attack.

Users are still able to access their accounts and the PlayStation Network through their PlayStation 3 consoles. Only Website access has been blocked at this time, with a message saying "The server is currently down for maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later."

Sony did not return calls seeking comment about the reported exploit, but said on the company's official blog this afternoon, "In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed." (As of 3pm ET, however, logins via the Web were still being blocked.)

Sa far, there have been no reports of any accounts that were compromised by this exploit and Sony seems to have taken quick action to ward off problems.

CNBC.com has seen a video demonstrating the exploit. In it, third parties are easily able to change a password even without having access to the original user's email account. Any account that is affected will likely know so quickly, however, as they will receive an automated email from Sony informing them that their password has been changed.

News of the potential security hole is far less devastating than the initial attack, which ultimately saw data stolen from over 100 million user accounts. Sony took the PlayStation Network offline for 3.5 weeks to assess the damage and rebuild the system with new security measure in place.

Last Saturday, it began welcoming customers back, starting a phased relaunch of the system that included the return of online play and the use of third party services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus.

Before users could sign on, though, they were required to download a patch and reset their account passwords, either via the PS3 where they had first set up their account or via the Website.

While the rollout occurred in North American and Europe, Sony was not able to relaunch the system in Japan, as officials there did not allow it, saying they were not yet convinced the system was secure.

"We know even the most loyal customers have been frustrated by this process and are anxious to use their Sony products and services again," said Kazuo Hirai, Sony' executive deputy president in a statement Saturday. "We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full-time, company wide commitment."

The company has come under fire for taking up to a week before informing consumers that their data was at risk. While it has been mainly apologetic for this, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer defended the timing yesterday in a roundtable discussion with reporters Tuesday.

"This was an unprecedented attack," he said. "A lot of these breaches are never reported by companies or it takes companies a month. You're telling me my week wasn't fast enoough?"

The data breach will have an economic impact on the company, but Sony says it is still determining how big the bill will be. The company's shares have fallen 8 percent since April 20, when it took the PlayStation Network offline because of the far-reaching and sophisticated cyber attack

Millions of PlayStation users are once again able to shoot, fight and race their way through online worlds after Sony resumed online gaming service late Saturday and Sunday in many major markets.

Basic services on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services were switched on for users in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand for the first time in more than three weeks, but users in Asia face a longer wait for service to resume.

Sony pulled the plug on the two online services after discovering on April 19 that its data center in San Diego had been attacked. A subsequent computer forensics investigation into the hack revealed the massive theft of personal information including user names, e-mail addresses, login IDs and passwords.

The PlayStation Network is a platform for online gaming and a channel through which Sony sells games and other content to console and handheld owners. Qriocity is an online service for Sony's networked consumer electronics products that offers music and video content.

Service was resumed in North America late Saturday evening and in other markets on Sunday. PlayStation users are being asked to download a firmware update for the console before they can reconnect to the network. Then, upon login, users must change their password.

The only hiccup in the resumption of services came in the password reset process, which was slowed down because of the large number of e-mail messages generated by the system. Some e-mail and Internet service providers temporarily throttled messages from Sony due to the high volume resulting in short delays. Sony also halted the password reset process for 30 minutes at one stage to clear a backlog of messages.

"The first phase in the U.S. and Europe went well," said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo. "Users are able to access the service. There have been no major problems."

Sony also reenabled the playback of already rented video, "Music Unlimited" online audio streaming, access to third-party services like Netflix and Hulu, PlayStation Home and friends features such as chat. Full service is expected to resume by the end of May in these markets.

Users in Asia, including Sony's home market of Japan, are still waiting for service to be restored.

The company is consulting with regulatory authorities in each of the markets in which it operates before resuming service, said Fukuoka. Sony doesn't formally need approval to restart the online services, but the company has decided to seek the understanding of regulators before it does so, said Fukuoka.

He offered no estimate on when service will return in Asia.

Almost 24 hours after Sony restored the PlayStation Network and Qriocity in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, there was no word on the restoration of the services in Japan and the rest of Asia.

It has been reported that Japanese regulatory watchdogs have not given the final go-ahead to Sony for the restoration of the services in the country on grounds of niggling doubts over network security.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that the PSN restoration in the U.S. and Europe was far from being a smooth affair, with occasional server glitches slowing down the process much to the disappointment of avid fans who skipped sleep to lay hands on favored games.

It was mainly a flood of password reset requests that slowed down the network. Sony acknowledged the glitches and requested users to be cooperative.

"Due to the high volume of emails, some users are experiencing delays receiving their password reset instructions. Thanks for your patience," Sony said in its PlayStation Twitter account.

However, fans were miffed at the slowdown and other restoration glitches. "Damn you #PSN! They're postponing again because of all the password updates theyre receiving," tweeted an angry user going by the name m_Rajon Rajon M. "PSN struggling to deal with huge mass of password resets," said another user named 'gotjammed'.

In Japan, the authorities are still not convinced about Sony's assurances over preventive measures for warding off network breaches and the company's efforts to restore consumer confidence.

"As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference," Kazushige Nobutani, the director of Japan's Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said, according to the Australian.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/146085/201...m#ixzz1MWF1bPb9

Sony has announced that PlayStation Network services are being restored in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico and South America.

However no further details have been provided on local availability.

Services in Japan and Asia are still not functioning, pending talks with authorities.

"We are still in talks with various authorities (in Japan and Asia)," Sony spokeswoman Kumie Tanaka said.

Japanese regulatory officials said they were not yet satisfied with the details offered by Sony at two meetings about beefing up network security.

Kazushige Nobutani, the director of Japan's Media and Content Industry department at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said there were two areas where further explanation was needed before approval would be given.

"The first is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference," he said.

The second was in how Sony hoped to regain consumer confidence over exposed personal data such as credit card information.

"There were similar cases in the past that were caused by other firms, and we are asking Sony whether their measures are good enough when compared to countermeasures taken in the past," he said.

Sony has admitted three data breaches so far, the most recent involving details of customers who entered a product sweepstake being discovered on the internet.

The first breach discovered was the hacking of 77 million PlayStation customer accounts, with names, addresses, user names, passwords and possibly credit card details among the information. Sony said it occurred between April 17 and 19.

Then security engineers discovered the hacking of credit and debit card details of about 24.6 million Sony Online Entertainment accounts, of which 336 were from Australia.

Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and the Qriocity music streaming service on April 20.

In the first restoration phase, users will be able to sign in and change their password to the PlayStation and Qriocity networks, Sony said in a statement.

Online games and playback rental video content would be available again for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles.

Qriocity services and access to third party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv also would be restored.

"The restoration of the services across the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Middle East are beginning, and consumers will be able to enjoy some of the online functionality provided by both the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services," Sony said.

"Phased restoration in Japan and other Asian countries and regions will be announced in due course. The company expects to have the services fully restored by the end of May 2011."

Additional reporting: Dow Jones Newswires

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