Sony’s PSN Gets Hacked ( Bad PR)

The Situation:

Unfortunately for Sony and it’s users, the Sony Playstation Network was taken down just before Easter this year. The Playstation Network or, PSN, is a network on their console gaming system that allows users to buy games, movies, play games with other users online and a whole host of other things.

At first, Sony did not come out and say what the issue was and why the network was taken down. It then came to light that their network was hacked. As a response to Sony hassling and suing another “hacker” for jailbreaking the PS3, some rogue hackers from the group “Anonymous” hacked the PSN and was able to retrieve names, addresses, phone numbers, usernames, passwords, birth dates and even credit card numbers. Also, the PSN hack has affected more than 70 million users.

This details of the hack and the reason why they took the PSN down were officially released by Sony over a week later on their blog.

The PR Angle:

One of the biggest mistakes that Sony made was that they waited over a week to announce why the network went down. In that time, people could have alerted their credit card companies and canceled credit cards. In Sony’s defense, they stated that they had gotten help from a security team to help figure out what had happened and then took all the information they got and shaped it into a presentable format. They said as soon as they had everything they needed, they released the information. In the world of PR, waiting that long to release information that could affect people’s credit and identity is simply not an option.

Also, it was discovered that Sony was keeping users information on the servers in plain text. It was not encrypted in any way. The credit card information was hashed so it would be difficult for hackers to get the numbers, but they are still technically retrievable. As far as the names, usernames, emails and all of the other relevant information, anyone with access can read all the information the same as you’re reading this.

Another point is how they decided to finally release the information that they found. They didn’t hold a press conference, they didn’t immediately email users, they decided to write a post on the Sony PSN blog. If you didn’t know that there was a blog or that the PSN was even hacked, you would never even think to check there and you would maybe never know that your private information was in the hands of malicious hackers.

Lastly, the cherry on the top comes from Sony’s second-rate apology. They did say that they were sorry and are offering some free things to its users. The greatest thing is that they are paying for and giving every user an insurance policy that insures credit fraud up to 1 million dollars. The slap in the face though is the poor choice of tangible freebies. Users are able to choose two games from a pot of four that either came out a very long time ago and are probably already owned by most users, or games that do not have any real value. Also, users are able to choose from a select few movies to rent for free.  Another thing users were given was a free one month subscription to Playstation Plus.

Even though the hack took place about a month ago, I still feel it is relevant and that people should know about it because Sony’s online networks are actually still being hacked. After the major PSN hack, other Sony online properties started to go down. Like Sony Online Entertainment, which is the PC side of its online gaming market, and also some of its online music properties, the services were hacked and user’s information was stolen. After adding on those hacks to the original one on the PSN, the affected users count reaches above 140 million.

Guaranteed, Sony has lost many users and even consumers who were thinking about purchasing a PS3 are now turned off from that idea. With their half-baked sorry and their lousy selection of free gifts, who would go back or trust them now? If you’re a PSN user, are you going to go back to using your PS3 or are you going to sell it on eBay or Craigslist? Leave your comments below.

PSN FAQ – Restoration Questions Answered (May 16)

Kazuo Hirai: PlayStation Network Restoration Announcement

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Microsoft Changed its Mind About Kinect “Hacks” (Good PR)

This story is a little old but I had to write about it because I find it to be an excellent use of good PR.

The situation:

Months ago, during the holiday season of 2010, Microsoft released a product for their Xbox 360 gaming console called the Microsoft Kinect. It lets gamers make use of their whole bodies to play games and manipulate menus. It plugs into the Xbox via a USB connector and has a series of cameras built into it that tracks your position and motion in 3D space. What happened though is people not only bought the device to use with their Xboxes, but some very sophisticated computer users were able to “hack” the Kinect to get it to work on a normal PC.

“[…] someone wrote an open source driver for PCs that essentially opens the USB connection, which we didn’t protect by design, and reads the inputs from the sensor. The sensor […] has eyes and ears, and that’s a whole bunch of noise that someone needs to take and turn into signal,” said Microsoft program manager Alex Kipman.

As soon as Microsoft found out that the Kinect was being used for something other than what it was intended for, they started to threaten legal action against the people “hacking” the Kinect. This naturally started to upset a great deal of tech/game journalists, PC enthusiasts and gamers.

The interesting bit was that less than two weeks after Microsoft started threatening legal action, they actually changed their minds. They started to backtrack and say that they are now excited to see that people are so excited to use the Kinect in new ways so soon after it was released.

The PR Angle:

Microsoft saved their rear ends with their quick change of attitude. They were on the verge of permanently upsetting a great deal of people and potentially losing a lot of sales of their product but they avoided that scenario by embracing the actions of the mod community.

It may not be directly related, although many critics think it is, the Kinect has now become the fastest selling tech gadgets in history. They managed to sell 10 million units since last November which resulted in an average of 133,000 units sold every day. The unit has also officially made it into the Guiness world records book for this achievement.

“The sales figures speak for themselves,” said Gaz Deaves, Guiness’ gaming editor. “No other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, which is an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector.”

Average users that are not in touch with what goes on the in the hacking community may have not heard of this story and would have bought the device regardless. It’s hard to think that since Microsoft decided to let people have at the Kinect freely, that the record sales are not related at all.

“Microsoft last month said it plans to release software that will allow developers to create a wide range of applications for Kinect. The Kinect SDK will launch this spring as a free download from Microsoft’s Web site,” said Paul McDougall of InformationWeek.

Nice quick PR recovery Microsoft.

PC World Source Article

InformationWeek Source Article

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