SOE Answers Common Questions About Attack

While we all wait for the Sony Online Entertainment services to come back online following an attack on the network, SOE posted a brief FAQ today to keep players updated on the situation. While they don't provide any new details, SOE has said it will continue to post updates to the site with new information as it becomes available. 

According to the FAQ, some games and services are expected to be up and running "soon." SOE emphasizes that the services will only be restored once the network is secure. SOE spokewoman Taina Rodriguez told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the network will be shut down until Friday and possibly longer, so it certainly looks like players should remain patient during this downtime.

You can read the current FAQ after the jump. As a reminder, SOE has confirmed that hackers may have obtained personal information from SOE systems, so be wary of any phishing scams that you may receive through e-mail. SOE will be granting customers 30 days of additional time on their subscriptions, in addition to compensating them one day for each day the system is down.

During the downtime you are welcome to join us in ZAM's IRC chat. Feldon of EQ2Wire also has set up a ZAM IRC java applet that you can use.


Recent Updates - May 4, 2011

When will SOE's services be back online?

We have been working around the clock to restore operations as quickly as possible, and we expect to have some of our games and services up and running soon. However, we want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we believe that the network is secure.

How is the SOE intrusion related to the PSN/Qriocity intrusion? Was this a second attack on SOE?

While the two systems are distinct and operated separately, given that they are both under the Sony umbrella, there is some degree of overlap in design. The attacks were similar in nature. This is NOT a second attack; new information has been discovered as part of our ongoing investigation into the criminal attack in April.

How is SOE planning to notify customers whose data may have been stolen?

We are sending out customer service notification emails to the email addresses we have on file for the accounts that were affected. These emails will be sent by Innovyx, our third party email distributor, and contained either 'soe.innovyx.net' or 'soe.sony.com' in the sender field.

SOE initially thought no data was extracted, what changed?

Essentially the perpetrators used sophisticated means not only to access the data, but also to cover their tracks. We committed to continue the investigation and in doing so, uncovered further information that we did not have when we initially believed the data was not stolen.

Comments

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Article on infosecurity-us.com
# May 05 2011 at 1:45 PM Rating: Decent
Not sure if someone has posted a link to this article yet or not.
http://www.infosecurity-us.com/view/17753/sony-hires-investigators-after-hack-of-customer-data/

I sincerely hope that this article is not accurate.
The 2nd paragraph:
"... have been suspended until security around users' information is improved, which Sony hopes will be by the end of May."

Seriously, they "hope" it will only take a month? I can see SOE games losing a TON of subscribers if it takes that long. A week or so, fine, it's understandable to take some time to secure the network, but a MONTH? Players will not sit around twiddling their thumbs for a month, they will find other games like Rift, or WoW, or SWTOR and not come back.

Not good.
Article on infosecurity-us.com
# May 05 2011 at 1:52 PM Rating: Decent
If down for a month I would have to say yes and no to your post. Part-time players who just need a little fix weekly or every other day, sure you might lose them, but those who have years invested will be back. Some will gripe and groan and bemoan that SOE only wants their money and cares little for them, but in the end we will all come back to the games we love and SOE (and us as well) will be all the more safer for having gone through this madness.

I am playing WOW right now (trial only) just to fill time. But I 'll be back and I suspect most users will be as well.
Article on infosecurity-us.com
# May 05 2011 at 4:24 PM Rating: Decent
aydensdad wrote:
If down for a month I would have to say yes and no to your post. Part-time players who just need a little fix weekly or every other day, sure you might lose them, but those who have years invested will be back. Some will gripe and groan and bemoan that SOE only wants their money and cares little for them, but in the end we will all come back to the games we love and SOE (and us as well) will be all the more safer for having gone through this madness.

I am playing WOW right now (trial only) just to fill time. But I 'll be back and I suspect most users will be as well.


Yeah i was gone for 2 years from EQ and whats another month? Geeez, what would the EQ / EQ 2 dev teams do with a whole month of downtime. Wonder if they would be allowed to improve the game and we come back to a lot of fun bug fixes. haha.
Article on infosecurity-us.com
# May 05 2011 at 2:15 PM Rating: Decent
20 posts
Very thoughtful and honest post! People can vent all they want, they know they will be back. This stuff happens. Its been down for a few days and may be done for a few more...but they are giving us all a month subscription and then some. And I am sure they will give double experience. People need to stop complaining and find something else to do.
Article on infosecurity-us.com
# May 05 2011 at 1:52 PM Rating: Decent
Who knows if it's true or not... I don't see an author for the article; it just claims that it came from a magazine.
I'm Cheating on you SOE so you better hurry...
# May 05 2011 at 1:38 PM Rating: Decent
I feel like such a cheater...I'm playing the 10 day free trial at WOW and I feel a little dirty. Please SOE make it all better again. No free gear or levels when you come back either. Don;t cheapen are long time love affair it took to get to lvl 90. (that means no free flying mounts!!!)
I'm Cheating on you SOE so you better hurry...
# May 05 2011 at 5:35 PM Rating: Decent
17 posts
A lot of our guild has headed over to LoTRO/Landroval server and are continuing to play together in a Kin of the same name.

Friendships are important, the world that one is playing in is less important than the people you play with day in and day out.

When EQ2 comes back in no matter how long I think the bulk of our guild will return and continue, as friends should, we will lose a few members to other games, but we understand this.

It's funny really. I left EQ2 back in 2008, the straw to break the camels back was when they contracted out international billing to a third party raising our prices by that companies commission plus some. I went to LoTRO and got a number of characters to cap before Moria and it's dark depressing nature got to me, I then went to WoW and got 8 toons to cap until Blizzard changed the stats and spells for the cataclysm reboot in a way that I just couldn't stand relearning everything from scratch. Then went back to EQ2 in December and created a new guild which we now have at level 60. Now with this... I am back in LoTRO again.

I hope I don't loop once more and end up in WoW for a second time.
I'm Cheating on you SOE so you better hurry...
# May 05 2011 at 2:52 PM Rating: Decent
I was just getting back into EQ after playing WoW for many years. <sarcasm>Grand welcome back </sarcasm>
I'm Cheating on you SOE so you better hurry...
# May 05 2011 at 1:42 PM Rating: Decent
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443 posts
haha, i been playing an old game i had in my game vault... dungeon siege 2 lol still a fun game even in single player mode >.<
I'm Cheating on you SOE so you better hurry...
# May 05 2011 at 2:48 PM Rating: Default
Same here, been playing Hellgate London last few days. Not a bad game either, too bad the publishers and Host went Bankrupt. Really enjoyed it. Single player isn't too bad, but since this is a re-install, I can't get past lvl 50 without the patches, which are non-existent since the servers have been gone.
____________________________
All that is lost, is not Forsaken
Link to an posting about Anonymous on gizmodo.com
# May 05 2011 at 12:39 PM Rating: Decent
17 posts
Passing along this URL.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5798869/anonymous-fears-nerd-backlash-from-playstation-hack
Next up
# May 05 2011 at 12:35 PM Rating: Decent
17 posts
I hit lvl 86 with my main toon the other day, and was getting ready to work on the flying mounts.

My current mount is getting old and is tired of running everywhere. He wants to retire to the barn and relax for a while. So it is time for a new, younger mount for the next 4 levels !
Next up
# May 05 2011 at 1:07 PM Rating: Decent
Does it really fly, change elevations? or just elevated plane and glide? just curious. EQ2 playing has been a while.
Next up
# May 05 2011 at 2:58 PM Rating: Decent
The trial ones that they had available last month sure changed elevation nice. I must assume the real ones do as well, because my guild leader was all over the place with his gryphon.
LOL... what a tool...
# May 05 2011 at 12:34 PM Rating: Decent
ROFL... I love the suggestion that we should get 5 free levels for our inconvenience! I can't tell if that Tool is joking or not! Why the hell would anyone want 5 levels that they haven't even played through. Are you one of those tards that just "wants to be level 90" without any joy in the gameplay?

Sony will compensate us finanicially (to a small degree) and certainly throw in some double XP days, but anything more would almost **** me off. We have all earned our gear and our levels, and I plan to earn more. I would NEVER want to just have items or levels given to me for any reason... Nor do I want others to be handed what I worked for.

Why don't you just go buy a level 90 Ebay acoount, ya meathead! >8\

P.S.> FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SONY... HURRY!!!

LOL... what a tool...
# May 05 2011 at 2:18 PM Rating: Decent
20 posts
OMG I couldnt agree more!! A month free subscription and maybe a couple days double exp will definitely suffice!! You can tell who the 14 year olds are posting and who is actually mature
LOL... what a tool...
# May 05 2011 at 2:32 PM Rating: Decent
I'm playing EQ2X on Freeport server. Silver subscription, so every month is free. I buy what I want/need using station cash....which is how they got my credit card #.

Don't think they've offered anything to those of us who do not pay a monthly fee.

That's where Station Cash or prestige homes would come in as nice thank you for staying with us items.
LOL... what a tool...
# May 05 2011 at 12:41 PM Rating: Decent
5 free levels in Transmutation...I'd take that :-)

A prestige house would be kinda nice, too. Not likely to happen though.
from a PSN site
# May 05 2011 at 12:19 PM Rating: Default
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Sony’s Response to the U.S. House of Representatives
+ Posted by Patrick Seybold // Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media
Today, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing in Washington, DC on “The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers.”

Kazuo Hirai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sony Computer Entertainment America, submitted written answers to questions posed by the subcommittee about the large-scale, criminal cyber-attack we have experienced. We wanted to share those answers with you (click here).

In summary, we told the subcommittee that in dealing with this cyber attack we followed four key principles:

1.Act with care and caution.
2.Provide relevant information to the public when it has been verified.
3.Take responsibility for our obligations to our customers.
4.Work with law enforcement authorities.
We also informed the subcommittee of the following:

•Sony has been the victim of a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack.
•We discovered that the intruders had planted a file on one of our Sony Online Entertainment servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion.”
•By April 25, forensic teams were able to confirm the scope of the personal data they believed had been taken, and could not rule out whether credit card information had been accessed. On April 26, we notified customers of those facts.
•As of today, the major credit card companies have not reported any fraudulent transactions that they believe are the direct result of this cyber attack.
•Protecting individuals’ personal data is the highestpriority and ensuring that the Internet can be made secure for commerce is also essential. Worldwide, countries and businesses will have to come together to ensure the safety of commerce over the Internet and find ways to combat cybercrime and cyber terrorism.
•We are taking a number of steps to prevent future breaches, including enhanced levels of data protection and encryption; enhanced ability to detect software intrusions, unauthorized access and unusual activity patterns; additional firewalls; establishment of a new data center in an undisclosed location with increased security; and the naming of a new Chief Information Security Officer.
We told the subcommittee about our intent to offer complimentary identity theft protection to U.S. account holders and detailed the “Welcome Back” program that includes free downloads, 30 days of free membership in the
PlayStation Plus premium subscription service; 30 days of free service for Music Unlimited subscribers; and extending PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited subscriptions for the number of days services were unavailable.

We are working around the clock to have some PlayStation Network services restored and we’ll be providing specific details shortly Smiley: laugh. We hope this update is helpful to you, and we will continue to keep you posted as we work to restore our network and provide you with both the entertainment and the security you deserve.

____________________________
Come visit my housing creations 20+ in Cedar Country Meadows, ZEK.
**** Level bump award *****
# May 05 2011 at 11:59 AM Rating: Default
38 posts
What I would really like for an award for the lack of available service is;

1. 5 level adjustment for 1 character per account...
2. If the level adjustment is not a benefit then an appropriate number of AA points.
3. J5 mercs available for one character per account.

This is my suggestion. Because it is feasable that, in the downtime, you could easily have done this much advancement and have, IMHO, been denied that opprotunity...

What do you think folks? Shall we rally around this request and let SOE know what our idea of a worthy reward is?

Just a suggestion posted by a realist that thinks the world should be fair; but, the world will never really be fair.

Signed
Clericgurl
the humble idea foister...(instigater) ;-)
**** Level bump award *****
# May 05 2011 at 12:56 PM Rating: Decent
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Clericgurl wrote:
What I would really like for an award for the lack of available service is;

1. 5 level adjustment for 1 character per account...
2. If the level adjustment is not a benefit then an appropriate number of AA points.
3. J5 mercs available for one character per account.

This is my suggestion. Because it is feasable that, in the downtime, you could easily have done this much advancement and have, IMHO, been denied that opprotunity...

What do you think folks? Shall we rally around this request and let SOE know what our idea of a worthy reward is?

Just a suggestion posted by a realist that thinks the world should be fair; but, the world will never really be fair.

Signed
Clericgurl
the humble idea foister...(instigater) ;-)


No.

What I'd like to have is access to the game so I can resume playing. I think giving away 30+ days of game time is irresponsible. Sony are not obligated to give you anything other than what's in the agreement. They do not need to compensate me anything for the outage. Everytime I log on I agree that they make take the server down at anytime. More importantly, every month when I make my payment, I agree to the terms that allow them to take the server down; everytime I make a payment, I'm letting SOE know that I agree with the way things are going. Whether I'm happy or not playing the game (and I am) doesn't matter. The money that I pay each month says to SOE "I am a satisfied customer." When the money stops flowing, I'm no longer satisfied in the eyes of Sony.

Potential for ID theft aside, Sony owe us nothing for the downtime. Doing anything at all exceeds this expectation. If you're not happy with the game or the downtime, don't pay. If you are, then quit gold digging for free hand outs.

I'd go as far as to argue that the percentage of people who will leave SOE games will do so regardless of whether some sort of compensation is done or not. I also believe that those who return will return whether any compensation is done or not. The decision to stay or go has already been made by the population.

When I return, I want things as I left them. As has already been stated by many others, thus far most people work for their levels (minus the task add players). You're not a special exception. You deserve no new levels, no new AA's, no new access to content, no gear, et cetera just because Sony took the server down for security reasons.
**** Level bump award *****
# May 05 2011 at 2:20 PM Rating: Decent
20 posts
Clericgurl (instigator).. thats obvious. Cause if you were serious about your wish list you would look like a total moron... i hope u arent for your sake.
**** Level bump award *****
# May 05 2011 at 12:49 PM Rating: Decent
Sorry, but I think increasing levels is not really a smart idea. I think giving us a free game time is sufficient enough. It's not like they wanted this to happen and they are compensating us with the time we are losing. This is really all we can ask of them.
**** Level bump award *****
# May 05 2011 at 12:45 PM Rating: Decent
*
60 posts
To be honest, I really don't want much from SOE (although, one of the things I want, they may be unwilling to give).

The 30 days free play that they state they intend to give, I really don't care about.

The one additional day of free play for each day the servers are unavailable, I believes is entirely appropriate.

What I doubt SOE will give me that I want, is a little bit more detail on what is going on now. Just telling me soon(tm) doesn't really cut it for me. I find it a bit patronizing. It is almost as if they were patting me on the head and telling me to sit in a corner playing with my alphabet blocks while the adults fix everything.


As for the rest of the ideas presented, I don't really care.

Double XP and/or variants of that (like XP potions), double spawns, increased this and that. They all mean that I will only exhaust content sooner on my alts (it has already happened on my main). /shrug


If you want to be a realist, you would have to understand that the compensations you suggest would not be of equal benefit to all. There is even a minority of people that would not derive even minimal benefit from anything you (or others) have suggested.

**** Level bump award *****
# May 05 2011 at 12:17 PM Rating: Good
In my opinion a wonderful reward for lack of available service is:

Lack of available service!

FFS doing something else with yourself for a change and stop obsessing over your levels
Really?
# May 05 2011 at 11:29 AM Rating: Default
First off, like others have said previously, as well as myself, it wouldn't have mattered if they had the security of Fort Knox, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Ever heard that before? It happens to be true. No one is immune to the threat of being hacked. Not Sony, not the Federal Government and not banks. How many times have you heard on the news that a Banks network was hacked and they lost several thousand customers information? Personally, I can remember at least 5 banks claiming just that, one of which was Bank of America, so quit stating that it was Sony's fault. They didn't ask the hackers to do this, or give them their passwords so they could.
They also have a lot to lose from the servers not being up, so enough with the conspiracy theories about they did this so they could move the servers. That's BS anyway. They really do not need to shut them down for more than an hour to accomplish a move anyway. It's called set up the new server with the information and copies of files needed to put it in action, then shut down and reboot. Move accomplished.
As to Anonymous not hacking SOE, they have already claimed responsibility for it, on You Tube. Check this link for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BplEYMDGH4Q
And no, I don't work for SOE, and I don't work for Blizzard either. And yes, I miss my game also, but tracing the steps of an elite hacker through a network the size of SOE's, is a nightmare of epic proportions, and I do not envy the people responsible for doing it. This may well take a month, considering the amount of data that needs to be checked, the loopholes that need to be re-inforced, and everything that needs to be answered to as far as the feds are concerned. And if it was Anonymous that did this, and SOE doesn't meet their demands, then it may well happen again before this is all said and done, since they claim they will never stop until SOE does meet their demands.
____________________________
All that is lost, is not Forsaken
enhhh
# May 05 2011 at 10:40 AM Rating: Decent
canceled my everquest subscription
enhhh
# May 05 2011 at 2:25 PM Rating: Decent
20 posts
Hey Corwin thanks for cancelling your subscription (even thought its impossible to do that atm) But hopefully you will follow through!! And it would be awesome if you were one of those people permacamping named spawns!!

PS Do you think posting that you are cancelling will change anything or that anyone cares? :) Just curious.
enhhh
# May 05 2011 at 1:48 PM Rating: Decent
corwin155 wrote:
canceled my everquest subscription


how did you cancel it?
enhhh
# May 05 2011 at 1:21 PM Rating: Decent
35 posts
Too bad there is no where that you can do that atm. Nice try at making a point tho.... Might want to actually try to do it than make a false statement...
enhhh
# May 05 2011 at 11:23 AM Rating: Good
Cool! Can I have your plat and any tradeable gear?
Why Anonymous probably isn't responsible
# May 05 2011 at 10:21 AM Rating: Decent
...there isn't enough lulz in it.

Its that simply really. Set aside the Geohot issue for a moment and look at from the this perspective. If your daily meat and potatoes is the (admittedly hilarious at times) disruption of the lives of others, by DDOSing the servers into oblivion you effective deny yourself the fruits of your labors. The ability to witness the prank you've pulled is of IMMENSE importance. As an example, when Anon raided Habbo years ago they could have just as easily LOIC'ed the game into nothingness. Where's the fun in that? Instead they create avatars of...er...questionable political correctness and went about griefing clueless people for months. The sheer quantity of "zOMgRAAAEEEGGG!11!!!!!1!" was off the charts and had the effect of defining an MO. DDOSing is time-honored tactic against big corporations like Scientology or Paypal (yes, I'm aware of how large Sony is), but doesn't produce the raw schadenfreude of ratcheting a gamers nerdrage dial up to 11. Sure, they could just read the forums, but that's akin to eating a hors d'oeurve when you could have a steak. It simply isn't Anon's style.

Anonymous has been made out to be the cyber-bad guy by many groups. It is certainly no white knight by any stretch, even if some of it's efforts have resulted in the public good e.g. awareness of Scientology abuses or the arrest of child-predator Chris Forcand. But as a broad generalization, Anon doesn't really care about your CC info and is pretty unlikely to have engaged in a mass ID theft scam. Chances are this a highly organized cyber-crime ring that is probably responsible for dozens of other break-ins that we'll never know about. Remember, if it the wolf you DON'T see that you have to worry about.

If Anonymous had hacked SOE everyone's loading screen would be Goatse'd and all character names would be reset to Mudkipz.



Error fix
# May 05 2011 at 10:17 AM Rating: Decent
*only my post
Thats odd
# May 05 2011 at 10:16 AM Rating: Decent
Yeah this was the right page lol I was only able to see my post there for a minute lol that was strange......
Wrong Place
# May 05 2011 at 10:09 AM Rating: Decent
Not sure how i got to this page but my post was supposed to be on a different page hmmmmmmmmmm.............
Get off Sony they are trying and Yes im amazed too!!
# May 05 2011 at 10:04 AM Rating: Decent
Aye I agree, kind of makes me wonder what and who I casually game with..I know alot of the guild im joining outside of game but what of those I dont know and people I casually group with,is this their thought process to whine and complain, jump to conspiracy theories and everything else thats going on?? Makes you wonder how many of these posters,both here and on FB,are the very same people who will lead your raidor maybe running your guild???? And yes, I posted the earlier comment bashing Sony for thatcalltoCustomer Service but that was about the phone call I made,not about something that was not their doing.And I am pretty sure some think the thing with Geohot could be used as a excuse to be mad because if they had not messed with him this wouldnt happen but im sure Sony never saw this coming from the lawsuit. And I hear about the ex employees and thats not their fault either.Would you keep a few workers and lose money or fire them and not run your business to the ground? The bottom line is I am anxiously waiting for servers to be back up also but I am not going to bash Sony for trying to fix a problem the right way! And FYI I pay by Greendot card so I have no worries about them steaaling my money so,before its suggested I am not rich or worried about my bottom line cause I am far from having a bottom line or being rich......Just thinking fair is fair and they are trying. The updates have been way more frequent then when this began so I think they are getting it on the Customer Support end TY all and sorry for being longwinded lol!!!!!!!!!!!!
My 2 Cent
# May 05 2011 at 9:38 AM Rating: Decent
Hi all, first post here..

I've been reading forum after forum on this matter and have drawn my own conclusions to the matter...

Play and simple, its jsut "business as usual" for SOE.

There seems to be a few sides to this issue people are taking and each one has valid points, and each one has its own opinions.

first you've got the Chill out and go get some sunshine group. These people arent doing anything wrong, not going to sit here and call them suck ups or anything else. They jsut dont "know" SOE's past as well as a lot of the vet's. They dont know SOE's track record or that this company has degraded downhill to a point that they really DONT care about their customer base as much as the all mighty dollar. These people arent stupid, and honestly, at some point will join the vet group at some point once they've seen for themselves who and what SOE is.

second you have the kiddies.... "GET MY GAME BACK ONLINE NOW" types... They arent worries about ID theft, credit cards or anyhting but pwning (if I typed that right)Again,not that theres anythign wrong with them. its call youth.. its called "thats mom and dads problem, where's my game"

Lastly you have the long time vets of SOE.

This group is well, all to familiar with SOE. How they handle things, how they treat their customers. Now before some of you get all up in arms and throw me to the wolves, this DOESNT mean EVERY vet see's things the way I'm about to describe. Some of you vets have bene lucky enough to get into SOE games that havent gone through the complete nightmare that other SOE titles have gone through. So you tend to follow the 1st group more.

But theres those of us who have been burned time and time again by SOE. I'll use SWG for example since I'm one of those guys... I know theres other games SOE has that have gone through similar deals but I cannot give as much detial since I only play SWG.

First off this isnt a post about the NGE or evne the CU. It happened, it sucked.. but it was a few years ago. What this IS about is how SOE handled it.

They lied
They kept us in the dark
They danced around the truth
They drove off almost their whole customer base

Heck I evne stuck it out long after the NGE, ended up leaving last year.Not becuase I was mad over the NGE, but because of what it DID. Dead servers, friends all gone and the playerbase has NEVER been the same since. I play SWG becaus eI like the set up, I liked the "community" and the social aspects of the game. But that has long since drizzled down to scraps and years after the fact and after promise after promise its still NOTHING compaired to how it was. Heck I JUST came back like 2 weeks ago because I missed playing SWG and couldnt find another game that came close to the setup here. Customer service is still horrible, server popular is still low.

Anyways, so yes the "vet group is bitter" But how does this tie in? Well everything I've read on a number of forums is the same... The PSN gets hacked. SOE finds it.. and waits over a WEEK to even tell people. (Sounds just like NGE to me) Servers go down... Vague comments as to when it will return... ASAP, soon, any day now... Long drawn out responses form SOE... I mean how hard is it to get whoever is posting on thier main site twice now to keep us up to date.. People wouldnt be so up in arms if they were kept up to date. "Hey guys, this is SOE, we're still workign on it, its a mess, and honestly it slooking like its going to be another 4 to 7 days before we can fix this." How hard is that? Evne if it takes longer, no ones going to care as long as their kept informed.. But a generic "post" every couple days saying the same as the last post? Come on.

So again, its jsut like typical SOE. They arent worried, we as players are not orgainized enough to be big enough to even make a dent in the SOE corp piggy bank. Sure people say their done with SOE, some do leave, most dont.. and its NEVER going to have any effect because theres jsut not enough of us to stand together as a "customer base" and say we've had enough of this! NGE was probably the biggest group effort but even it wasnt enough.. Close, but not enough.

Am I saying lets do that.. Na, whats the point.. We love our games and we'd rather just ignore SOE and play them. But MAYBE, just MAYBE this is a big enough mess that SOE will realize they need to treat their customers like CUSTOMERS if this effects their bottom line like a alot are saying it will... Afterall.. we may be nobodies to them, but you get enough of us nobodys together paying THEIR salaries and we become SOMEBODIES.

As far as the credit card and private data ordeal... Yep, again it sucks. Yep, typical SOE, worry about getting everyones $15 a month per account.. And we'll "fix the broken stuff once its down"

They knew they were running outdates software, A lot of us do it. Who's still running Win XP? Its technically outdated.. The differnce is, you kepe all the patchs up to date dont you? SOE didnt! They knew the holes in it, almost everyone that knows ANYTHING about a computer knew Apache had problems with that version. But they jsut put it off... "It 'll never happen to us" Sound familiar? People do it all the time... I dont need a alarm on my car, no one would steal my stuff... Then it happens...

Well it happened to SOE now... and no, it WASNT their "fault" they got hacked.. I mean ya, they sturr'd up a hornets nest an made themselves tagets by the hacker groups... But they still didnt ASK to get hacked..

what SOE IS at fault for though is the data... Sure, I dont ahve a larm on my car either, whos going to steal my piece of crap... But wait.. I'm carrying around your wallet in there... hmmm, I should do somehting to make sure its safe because its in MY car and my responsiblity.... (AKA our personal data) So I'm going to atleast lock my doors and put your wallet in the glove box, under the seat, SOMETHING.. not jsut flip it wide open and lay it on the dash. (AKA not atleast having that crap encrypted)

that IS where SOE is at fault!

Edited, May 5th 2011 11:51am by Ravcee
My 2 Cent
# May 05 2011 at 10:42 AM Rating: Decent
5 posts
I appreciate your comment sir but to try to group the masses into groups will always fail....SOE is a corporation and not a person.....It has no feelings....The mission of corporation is to make money....I can assure you that the customer base is very important to SOE...The customer base is the source of the cash that SOE is tasked to harvest....No customer base equals no cash....Every decision that the people who guide this coorporation makes is designed to maximize the cash flow and I can assure you that they know that keeping the customers happy is important to the the cash flow. Sometimes you get people making the decisions that are not quite up to the task or sometimes they just get it wrong....They eventually get weeded out and they normally leave the corporatin as millionairs....The people who pay the price are the people that enjoy the services and products that Sony puts out....This is only my opinion but I have been gaming for over 20 years and EQ is the best game ever to be released and I will continue to support it for as long as Sony keeps it online....I really enjoy reading the posts here...God bless those that share with us the ones that are funny and that make us laugh
So many experts
# May 05 2011 at 9:25 AM Rating: Decent
22 posts
Don't know about Rift, but I do Play Guild Wars. Played EQ for 9 years and have played Guild Wars for 5 and a half. So if the servers are not up on EQ, I will go play the double XP weekend on Guild Wars. I agree that many need to learn to read. I marvel at all the experts on security of computers there are telling us what is really going on. (Thank you all).
It is sad so many can't find anything to do with there time. The servers will not be back up, tell they are up.. Do something for a few day.
yeah, yeah
# May 05 2011 at 9:10 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
I am finding some of the thought processes displayed by various people... disturbing.

Some people are hinting that this is just kind of a Sony conspiracy.

We have other people that think shutting down the servers to protect further compromise of real life assests is a bad thing but shutting them down to protect in-game assets is a good thing.


I swear, a good percentage of people posting here need to be jerked up by their stacking swivels and slapped repeatedly.


I question everything Sony says since the last expansion when they clearly said you get a flying mount if you buy the Digital Collector' Edition for an extra $20. That was not true. So at best they are deceptive and at worst outright liars.

Given the fact that most EQ2 players would have gone ballistic if told the servers would be down for a week while the farm is moved I can clearly see them taking the PS2 incident as an opportunity to shut down SOE to move it without having to announce a week shutdown they would never hear the end of.

Why wouldn't they take the opportunity of the playstation debacle to shut down SOE to move it? I found the fact that they made no mention of SOE being shut down in the letter to congress suspect. Why not mention that too?

I also wonder how many of the "My Sony, right or wrong" posters are Sony employees posting for damage control.

Corpotations regularly, consistantly, and serially lie to their customers as a matter of policy, why would Sony be any different?

yeah, yeah
# May 05 2011 at 11:27 AM Rating: Decent
*
60 posts
rickcarufel wrote:
Quote:
I am finding some of the thought processes displayed by various people... disturbing.

Some people are hinting that this is just kind of a Sony conspiracy.

We have other people that think shutting down the servers to protect further compromise of real life assests is a bad thing but shutting them down to protect in-game assets is a good thing.


I swear, a good percentage of people posting here need to be jerked up by their stacking swivels and slapped repeatedly.


I question everything Sony says since the last expansion when they clearly said you get a flying mount if you buy the Digital Collector' Edition for an extra $20. That was not true. So at best they are deceptive and at worst outright liars.

Given the fact that most EQ2 players would have gone ballistic if told the servers would be down for a week while the farm is moved I can clearly see them taking the PS2 incident as an opportunity to shut down SOE to move it without having to announce a week shutdown they would never hear the end of.

Why wouldn't they take the opportunity of the playstation debacle to shut down SOE to move it? I found the fact that they made no mention of SOE being shut down in the letter to congress suspect. Why not mention that too?

I also wonder how many of the "My Sony, right or wrong" posters are Sony employees posting for damage control.

Corpotations regularly, consistantly, and serially lie to their customers as a matter of policy, why would Sony be any different?



OMG, you are right. Hey everyone, rick has got it pegged!

Their EQ2 customers would have gone into orbit if SOE shut down the servers just to move them to a difference facility.

Much better that they make up a story of how they were hacked. Tell everyone that a certain amount of account information was compromised. Tell everyone how to go about protecting themselves from identity theft and hint that it may happen to them. Indicate that some credit card information was stolen and they should keep an eye on their credit reports and make sure someone isn't fraudulently using their credit cards.

Yes, yes. THAT would cause less of an uproar than telling everyone they were just moving from one building to another. They wouldn't hear a peep from anyone if they used that tactic. /nod




yeah, yeah
# May 05 2011 at 9:49 AM Rating: Decent
rickcarufel wrote:
Quote:
I am finding some of the thought processes displayed by various people... disturbing.

Some people are hinting that this is just kind of a Sony conspiracy.

We have other people that think shutting down the servers to protect further compromise of real life assests is a bad thing but shutting them down to protect in-game assets is a good thing.


I swear, a good percentage of people posting here need to be jerked up by their stacking swivels and slapped repeatedly.


I question everything Sony says since the last expansion when they clearly said you get a flying mount if you buy the Digital Collector' Edition for an extra $20. That was not true. So at best they are deceptive and at worst outright liars.

Given the fact that most EQ2 players would have gone ballistic if told the servers would be down for a week while the farm is moved I can clearly see them taking the PS2 incident as an opportunity to shut down SOE to move it without having to announce a week shutdown they would never hear the end of.

Why wouldn't they take the opportunity of the playstation debacle to shut down SOE to move it? I found the fact that they made no mention of SOE being shut down in the letter to congress suspect. Why not mention that too?

I also wonder how many of the "My Sony, right or wrong" posters are Sony employees posting for damage control.

Corpotations regularly, consistantly, and serially lie to their customers as a matter of policy, why would Sony be any different?



Not sure what exactly whaty you bought but the digital collectors edition I added had the flying mount, my level 90's on that account are happily flying aroud on it..unless you are one of the crowd that beleive your level 1's should be able to do it. Sorry there is no "lie" there, the mount is there you just do not qualify for it.

/rofl "shutdown soe" that is about as plausable as your comment on SOE "lieing" to you. So speaks a member of the BOBHL league.
yeah, yeah
# May 05 2011 at 10:12 AM Rating: Decent
Sony never said that you had to be lvl 90 to get the mount, they said spend an extra 20 buck and get a mount. You can't add requirements after the sale. That's like a car dealer selling you a car and saying after the sale, "Oh, we are only giving bought cars to customers over 50 but thanks for the dough."

And you're last line is complete gibberish. Are you implying you don't know the SOE network IS down? Are you implying that Sony don't lie to it's customers? And I wouldn't throw you're guild name so freely implying that the rest of the guild holds you're opinions.

Edited, May 5th 2011 12:14pm by rickcarufel

Edited, May 5th 2011 12:18pm by rickcarufel
yeah, yeah
# May 05 2011 at 11:05 AM Rating: Decent
rickcarufel wrote:
Sony never said that you had to be lvl 90 to get the mount, they said spend an extra 20 buck and get a mount. You can't add requirements after the sale. That's like a car dealer selling you a car and saying after the sale, "Oh, we are only giving bought cars to customers over 50 but thanks for the dough."

And you're last line is complete gibberish. Are you implying you don't know the SOE network IS down? Are you implying that Sony don't lie to it's customers? And I wouldn't throw you're guild name so freely implying that the rest of the guild holds you're opinions.

Edited, May 5th 2011 12:14pm by rickcarufel

Edited, May 5th 2011 12:18pm by rickcarufel


/rofl get you mind off the game or is that the only way you can relate to the real world? The comment has nothing to do with a "guild" in any game - or are you so fixated with a fantasy world that you forget what it is like to live in the real world? Why assume it is a guild name, bad habit to get into. /doh MR obvious - yes I do know the network is down, but unless you are privy to some super secret document that shows SOE lied it is your opinion and that is it.

As far as the mount remember the term "some restrictions apply" just becasue you can't get what you want it has no relation to "lieing". Never assume anything, 99 percent of the time you are wrong

As far as idolizing the theives that did this, then need to be thrown inot a federal prison and not be released until they have paid off ever penny of the damages caused by their act - at the rate of 10 cents a hour

Edited, May 5th 2011 1:06pm by eq2ctplayer

Edited, May 5th 2011 1:10pm by eq2ctplayer
>.<
# May 05 2011 at 8:30 AM Rating: Good
*
60 posts
I am finding some of the thought processes displayed by various people... disturbing.

Some people are hinting that this is just kind of a Sony conspiracy.

We have other people that think shutting down the servers to protect further compromise of real life assests is a bad thing but shutting them down to protect in-game assets is a good thing.


I swear, a good percentage of people posting here need to be jerked up by their stacking swivels and slapped repeatedly.

>.<
# May 05 2011 at 8:52 AM Rating: Good
Pretty silly indeed. It is all about $. It is pretty funny to read variety of Evercrack addicts responding to situations and to each other. It is pretty entertaining. No wonder I see so much drama in game. I thougth it was all about having fun and killing some boring time. But actually seeing withdrawls both "hopefulls" who posts "good job SOE for not guarding personal information like law mandates them to do. Even though it is like fixing the barn after horse running away, we will support you anyways and continue to play your game. Just please bring up the servers when you can..." And also, "bitters" who post their disappointments, anger, frustrations..

You know, being a witness to how much damage and life changing event the ID theft is, I am shocked that people here are not more angry at SOE. You know some people take couple of years fixing the ID theft damage going through cc cancellations and credit drops which impacts your car buying, etc. Yeah, you only see it on TV and will not realize until you become a victim.
>.<
# May 05 2011 at 9:58 AM Rating: Decent
20 posts
It's been said before but I will say it again. If the US Government can get hacked, so can Sony.
the mighty has fallen
# May 05 2011 at 7:59 AM Rating: Default
looks like david <hacker> has brought down goliath <SOE> ......
Letter to congress
# May 05 2011 at 7:54 AM Rating: Decent
I just read Sony's letter to congress and have a few thoughts:

First, there is barely any mention of SOE in the letter, it almost exclusively addresses the Playstation issue.

Second, they do mention there was a planned move of the physical location of their servers and this down time would probabally have happened even if there were no alledged cyber-attack.

Third, Sony only mentions compensation to it's playstation based network.

Nothing is mentioned about the SOE situation or any compensation to the SOE customers.

Again I mention there was a planned server location move and that would cause an inturrption of service, possibly taking several days.

So one must ask the question again: How much of what Sony is saying can be believed?

They do finally admit, indirectly, that they didn't shut down the playstation network, they admit there was a DOS happening that was causing servers to crash and reboot.

Did this also happen to the SOE network? Or are they just taking the playstation incident as an excuse to "Package" SOE with it when in fact they are just re-locating their server farm and BSing us about the reason for the downtime?

Edited, May 5th 2011 9:58am by rickcarufel

Edited, May 5th 2011 10:07am by rickcarufel
Letter to congress
# May 05 2011 at 8:16 AM Rating: Decent
Seems pretty silly to throw something like this up as smoke screen for physical relocation of servers. I'd rather say "We're relocating our offices" than "Our internal operations have been compromised."
Now, maybe they're using this time to
A) relocate the servers
and
B) beef up security

I'm okay with that. Do I miss EQ2? Heck yes. Am I going to leave it? Heck no. Do I wish they'd get it up soon? Heck yes. But not at the risk of having this happen all over again. Take the time, do it right the first time, that's the best idea here.

SOE
# May 05 2011 at 7:16 AM Rating: Decent
As far as I am concerned the hackers are the guilty party not Sony. Want to rant rant at the butts that caused all the problems.
do I think SOE is arognant yes do I wish they had a little better customer care yes. But as far as I am concerned they make the best online game for $15.00 a month, as long as they continue doing this I will continue to play.
ya jones'n big time
# May 05 2011 at 6:04 AM Rating: Decent
think what u will about me but i know there a lot of people like me in that this is a major life disruption. =( reading thru these forums i still havent seen a reason why the servers have to be locked down. of course im no computer expert (in fact, far from it), but how would letting us play make it any worse? if they have our info already its up to us and our banks to keep an eye on it. why not let us play to keep our minds off it
ya jones'n big time
# May 05 2011 at 6:18 AM Rating: Decent
By locking the systems down ( turning them off) the hackers can't continue to do what they have been doing. Hacking wasn't just about taking information, it was about getting into your game accounts and taking items such as station cash, in game money and items. SOE shutting down like they did they can also restore any items lost via back ups before bringing the games back online.

With the game down the "hackers" can't "hack", they can't continue to get into accounts and cause trouble.
ya jones'n big time
# May 05 2011 at 8:15 AM Rating: Decent
Nope. They did not touch the EQ related stuff. Do you really think they hacked to steal EQ stuff? Using DOS as a cover and getting into a major corporation network and firewalls is not childish play like Anon's DOS attack. They came in queried the perosnal information and possibly the CC information. According to their statements, they are not sure if cc information was touched. The reason they cannot bring up servers right now is the potential lawsuit and government fines. They have to satisfy both regualtory and public that they have taken all the measures. They won't do it unless security firms clears them and these security firms will take all the time they need to clamp down obvious loose holes SOE had. These firms will have to watch out for themselves too. If they are not 100% sure, they won't clear it. 1 week is pretty standard time for security firms to investigate, assess, and give recommendations. If it is taking more than a week then, it indicates SOE had really serious issues and more than one area to fix.

As for Evercrack addicts. You are just going through withdrawls. Evercrack is just as serious as cocaine and heroine. Time for you to step back and do other things. If you are pissed off at whole thing. go ahead buy Rift and play. I did for past 3 days. It is adequate and better than children's game like WOW. It is little beter than EQ2. And there are LOT of people playing. and I see lot of EQ1&2 players in Rift now. I am not sure if they will go back, but I am sure they will. Once EQ comes back up, just continue to play EQ. If you can't afford to play Rift or WOW temporarily then you shouldn't really cotinue your Evercrack addictions.
ya jones'n big time
# May 05 2011 at 8:56 AM Rating: Decent
"I am not sure if they will go back, but I am sure they will"

Interesting
ya jones'n big time
# May 05 2011 at 7:49 AM Rating: Decent
One HUGE hole being shot into that whole theory though....Their billing system is obviously not "taken down" as many people have already noted to being still billed for a service they are not providing. And it is pretty plain common sense that the most sensitive information that a hacker could want would be in the billing system, not the game servers. If they can shut down game servers and not billing they are obviously seperate. So why not shut down the billing mainframe and leave the idividual game server mainframes running to have a "free-to-play" atmosphere while they rebuild what they need to. They are already promising free play time. Why not just have it running right now? I'm just adding this in for food-for-thought, as I have already placed billing blocks through my bank and went out and bought Rift (of which I can say rocks when you have a system that handles all the graphics setting at max)...:)
ya jones'n big time
# May 05 2011 at 6:31 AM Rating: Decent
ah ok thx for reply. i didnt realize they were messing with in game stuff. i took it as they were just after bank acct info throughout soe community not everquest specifically
Already
# May 05 2011 at 4:14 AM Rating: Decent
Does anyone got e-mail from SOE about stolen personality information
Already
# May 05 2011 at 6:24 AM Rating: Excellent
Empress of News
***
2,350 posts
takan95 wrote:
Does anyone got e-mail from SOE about stolen personality information

So far I've only gotten one for the three accounts (mine, hubby, son) I have linked to my address... no idea which one.
____________________________
Cyliena Velnarin | @Cyliena on Twitter

Already
# May 06 2011 at 3:52 AM Rating: Decent
I too got an Email from them for my account Know what?...***** it they can have it I'll just have SOE compensate me with another warrior with even better high end gear Platnum for the Loss of my House for my character,these godamn Hacker Kids will get busted for this sh*t someday.
Look Im all for fighting for what people belive in to some degree but breakin into other peoples accounts stealing thier hard work on character's not to mention breakin into thier personal account information and useing it for thier own gain is goin too far and I cant accept that even for them.
I personly Dont give a damn if I get hacked booted banned from everything EverQuest because im the kind of guy who doesint get Mad or Pissed....oh no no no I get EVEN!!.
and too bad for them they may or maynot have my Visa prepaid debit card Info because there aint a flippen penny in it,not to mention old records of my debit payments from My sister *god rest her soul* and that debit is no longer in service and also other Debit cards that expired.
So to all these Anonymous Hacker KIDS..LISTEN UP!!..There are other ways to handle this Kind of thing if you or your friends feel you been treated unfairly By the SONY Company!.
Instead of screwin sh*t up for everyone because of a few of your freinds got Sued or banned from thier service and you say that the PSN had Mod programs to add and install 3rd party software then you probly did do somethin somewhat illigal on your part maybe you dident pending what Sony had in thier Contract agreement I dont KNOW!.
But I do know that its Pissin people off because you keep makin threats to the SOE and other Sony company branches around the world if they get thier services back up well I'LL tell you what..I TOO KNOW MY WAY WITH COMPUTERS ASWELL AND IF YOU DONT EASE UP ON THIS sh*t YOUR GONNA FIND THAT I TOO AM FORCE TO BE ROCKONED WITH!.
sorry got a bit carried away there my bad,Im not mad like I seid but I do get a bit fustrated from all this and its maken people who dident know a thing about this Legal crap between Anonymous and SOE and it Hurting the people who had nothing to do with it at all or knew nothin about it im talkin regular subsacribers who get on EQ to have fun.

Edited, May 6th 2011 5:58am by SkardeckZek
Already
# May 05 2011 at 4:48 AM Rating: Decent
takan95 wrote:
Does anyone got e-mail from SOE about stolen personality information



recieved teh email for every one of my accounts, including a couple that have been shutdown for 8 months
swg
# May 05 2011 at 3:05 AM Rating: Decent
its just my luck that my star wars galaxies 30 day trial ran out on the 1st may so i put in my card details for a extra month which i did not activate it was late in the uk thought i would wait for the next day (2nd may) and of course the sh*t hit the fan so no star wars for me does anyone think i will still get some free time.....
swg
# May 05 2011 at 3:46 AM Rating: Decent
**
384 posts
pjc71 wrote:
its just my luck that my star wars galaxies 30 day trial ran out on the 1st may so i put in my card details for a extra month which i did not activate it was late in the uk thought i would wait for the next day (2nd may) and of course the sh*t hit the fan so no star wars for me does anyone think i will still get some free time.....


My guess is that you will get the free time if for no other reason than because SOE will be trying to keep people happy in the aftermath of this.

swg
# May 05 2011 at 4:49 AM Rating: Decent
MontyB wrote:
pjc71 wrote:
its just my luck that my star wars galaxies 30 day trial ran out on the 1st may so i put in my card details for a extra month which i did not activate it was late in the uk thought i would wait for the next day (2nd may) and of course the sh*t hit the fan so no star wars for me does anyone think i will still get some free time.....


My guess is that you will get the free time if for no other reason than because SOE will be trying to keep people happy in the aftermath of this.



SOE has already stated that they will issue 30 days + 1 day for every day the systems are down because of teh thieves
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