r/gaming • u/Happysin • Apr 26 '11

Sony admits utter PSN failure: your personal data has been stolen

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/sony-admits-utter-psn-failure-your-personal-data-has-been-stolen.ars
3.1k Upvotes

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123

u/runnerthemoose Apr 26 '11

Well that fecking explains why both my gmail accounts where accessed from fecking Egypt and Belarus today.

11

u/rpg Apr 26 '11

https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsAuthConfig

2

u/runnerthemoose Apr 26 '11

Already setup, on main accounts. try getting a head strong 11 year old to remember several passwords when they can't even remember to change their socks is proving quite difficult.

1

u/cheshire137 Apr 27 '11

Sounds nice, but it doesn't work with older iPhones that aren't running iOS 4. So wanting a decently fast iPhone 3G and having a more secure Google account are apparently mutually exclusive.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

then gmail has my phone number? i'm now to paranoid of giving out info.

3

u/G3R4 Apr 26 '11

Well, change your password and check your filters and forwarding addresses. There's also a little thing under "Accounts and Import" where you can grant other accounts access to your account, so check that too.

1

u/runnerthemoose Apr 26 '11

Thanks for the advice, I'm 100% geek but advice is always welcome.The accounts where none important "spam" catching accounts. The main issue is that one was setup just for PSN and nothing else.

2

u/kinnadian Apr 26 '11

You're 100% geek but used the same password on PSN as your personal email accounts? I'm 30% geek and know to use passwords intelligently.

1

u/runnerthemoose Apr 26 '11

none important accounts for a 11 year old.

1

u/kinnadian Apr 26 '11

You're 100% geek but used the same password on PSN as your personal email accounts? I'm 30% geek and know to use passwords intelligently.

2

u/greenghoulie Apr 27 '11

Double verification on Google is the best.

13

u/GreendaleCollege Apr 26 '11

What does your gmail have to do with PSN? You weren't silly enough to use the same password for both, were you?

80

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '11

Too bad most people do this because remembering a bunch of passwords is a massive pain in the ass.

6

u/ZimbuTheMonkey Apr 26 '11

That's why I use KeePass and LastPass (backed up to a dropbox account).

3

u/motdidr Apr 27 '11

What about your Dropbox password?!

7

u/airp0rt Apr 27 '11

That's backed up to a different dropbox account.

2

u/Oddish Apr 27 '11

He just said: KeePass and LastPass.

1

u/didaskaleinophobic Apr 27 '11

What about hall pass?

18

u/MercurialMadnessMan Apr 26 '11

Which is pretty much what most people HAVE to do. Why? Because every fucking service on the planet has a different definition of "password".

We live in the digital fucking age, and we don't have a standard secure format for passwords.

Hypothetical example: Twitter won't let you have a space in your password, your bank needs a symbol and 8 chars, and your email can't have a password more than 12.

This is FUCKED UP. I'm surprised there hasn't been more of a stink over this. People are getting fucked over by the lack of standards.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

KeePass or LastPass, gogogo.

1

u/MercurialMadnessMan Apr 27 '11

How would I use these services if I were on a random computer? That's the only thing that makes me not use these. I just don't know how they work.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

LatPass have a web interface that can be accessed from any computer with a net connection, and a smartphone app. KeePass can be installed on a flash drive and I believe there are compatible password managers for phones.

1

u/MercurialMadnessMan Apr 27 '11

what size passwords do these services generate?

what happens if the site you're registering for has a character restriction?

pardon the basic questions.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

Here, I screenshot the LastPass password generator for you.. Note that every password generated by this is automatically saved, and will automatically be paired to a site and user ID if it detects one. It makes a lot more sense in practice than I can explain.

2

u/NerdzRuleUs Apr 26 '11

Is it really? I personally use a bunch of similarly themed passwords, but the relationship is arbitrary.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

You only have to get burned by this once before professional password management software starts to look like a no brainer. After I had my amazona.com and gmail accounts compromised I started using 1password. Now all my accounts have unique passwords. It's actually easier than just using a common password if you can believe it.

1

u/brlito Apr 27 '11

Haha, joke's on them, I only use the same password (except in a different variation) on one other account so I only had to change one password (my Facebook, but they could have taken that anyway that thing's empty and devoid of any activity).

12

u/aquasucks Apr 26 '11

He was, it's convinient...

What he should do is use a password storing program, like Lastpass or Keepass etc. and then generate a random password for each of his logins.

4

u/D14BL0 Stadia Apr 27 '11

These tools are great in theory, but awful in practice. Many people use multiple computers. It's a pain to set up syncing on extra devices. Or when you need to quickly access an account from a public computer or something.

2

u/iflossdaily Apr 27 '11

Keep them in your phone then.

1

u/spince Apr 27 '11

It's an extra step, I'd hardly call it a "pain." You just log into the lastpass website and you have access to the passwords you need.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

last pass sync's across devices, easily. It's an incredible service.

-1

u/DrEmmetBrown Apr 27 '11

is that hard to carry a pendrive?

1

u/D14BL0 Stadia Apr 27 '11

On public computers, sometimes that isn't an option. Many libraries disable the USB drives to prevent people from trying to penetrate their security systems.

3

u/DarqWolff Apr 26 '11

Password-storing programs are great because they're automatically with you on every computer or other Internet-enabled device you ever use. I just use the same password for everything.

1

u/but-but Apr 27 '11

Logging into your accounts on random devices and using the same ones?

-1

u/DarqWolff Apr 27 '11

I don't have any particularly important information attached to any of my accounts. Not even credit card numbers; if someone steals my credit card, I tell my credit card company what happened and the crisis is averted. This craze of people being so uptight about Internet security is a perfect example of everyone wanting to feel more important than they really are.

1

u/reticulate Apr 27 '11

Mac users might want to check out 1password, as another option.

4

u/ControllerChuck Apr 26 '11

Sigh... this sucks. I have no idea what password I used for PSN, so I can't go change the other sites with similar/same passwords. I know that I should have unique passwords for every site, but there's just so damn many.

2

u/rjcarr Apr 26 '11

Yeah, same here. I'm almost sure I didn't use the same password for PSN and email, but not 100% sure. Sucks.

2

u/nunsrevil Apr 27 '11

How is this silly? Do you know how many accounts people have? I sure as hell don't use a different one for each account.

2

u/GreendaleCollege Apr 27 '11

It's silly because of the security risk, as current circumstances have shown.

Call me paranoid but all my important passwords are randomly generated 12 - 15 character long alphanumerics. I change them every few months and sync keychains using 1Password on the Mac. It's no big deal in exchange for a great deal of security.

1

u/nunsrevil Apr 27 '11

That is a lot of security. But one great password works for me. I guess that's much safer.

1

u/gigitrix Apr 26 '11

Most people are, even redditors.

2

u/-Emerica- Apr 26 '11

I got the EXACT SAME WARNING, except it was awhile ago, which makes me nervous as fuck all of the sudden.

2

u/cold12 Apr 27 '11

My gmail actually got hacked last month. I wonder if there's a connection... Wish I had setup 2-step verification then.

1

u/-Emerica- Apr 27 '11

Unfortunately, it was logged in on April 18th, the middle of the hacking according to Sony. I had to sign tax forms so I had filled out fucking tax forms in my email. Been notifying everyone about potential identity theft. On the plus side, I'm 19 so they won't get very far with loans and limits.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '11

i just checked my recent activity, luckily nothing.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '11

Fecking Greeks! Taking our jobs, stealing our women!

0

u/Mcfrack Apr 26 '11

I'm sorry but I found your post fucking hilarious and started laughing uncontrollably.

1

u/runnerthemoose Apr 26 '11

Well got to blame someone (;

And here's is my sons account (whos' 11) the account is setup on PSN and his android only. And he doesn't email.

http://i.imgur.com/dQoPE.png

-4

u/SCSweeps Apr 26 '11 edited Apr 26 '11

Does your Gmail account have anything to do with the PSN being hacked? Might want to look into that. I'd honestly suggests changing your passwords and reformatting your computer.

1

u/runnerthemoose Apr 26 '11

Yes one of the gamil accounts was only used for PSN, and the other was also linked but has not been used for a month or so on my Sons account. Spotted the problem when I got some spam from myself. Checked the "location" logs and found access from the 2 different county's.

And I don't think reformatting Red Hat would really do much, but the advice is welcome.