In case you are unaware, the PlayStation Network has been down frequently and under repair this weekend.  This is a rough time for PSN to be down because it is the holiday season; and that means new consoles are being purchased. Sony PlayStation released a statement on the outage and said, “Our engineers will be working to restore service as quickly as possible.” The outages have caused disrupted connectivity and online gameplay for the consoles. The disruption for PSN was caused by a hacker attack. This is not the first time PSN has fallen victim to hacking attacks. The network crashing appears to be a recurring issue for Sony PlayStation. While a large amount of the blame can be directed at the hackers attacking the system, it does beg the question: Why is the PlayStation Network so insecure?
Deadline reports that the hack attacks against the PlayStation Network are connected to the hacker group the Lizard Squad. This is not the first major cyber attack against the PlayStation Network. In May 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) announced a major cyber intrusion that led to the compromise of approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts. Some of the stolen information included credit and debit card numbers. This is not even the first time this happened this month. Business Insider reports that the same hacking group, the Lizard Squad, was able to take down PSN earlier this month. When consumers provide their financial information to outlets like Sony PlayStation, they expect that information to remain private and secure. If a bank is repeatedly getting robbed, doesn’t that mean the bank has weak security? With PlayStation Network that appears to be the case.
Hackers will always try to stay ahead of the curve and continue with these attacks. However, considering PlayStation Network seems to crash with alarming regularity, one wonders how strong the security for outlets like PlayStation Network and Xbox Live really are at the moment. Based on the news, it appears that the networks are a flimsy house of cards. I am not saying consumers should stop using these services. However, one can hope that the cyber security of user credit cards and bank accounts is held in some sort of vault such as Fort Knox. Hopefully, Sony PlayStation is going to finally start learning from these experiences and improve the security of their network. Currently, the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live appear to be utterly fragile.
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