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Steam Gets Hacked - Personal Data was Accessible to Hackers but Not Taken
Fri Nov 11, 2011 at 11:30 AM ETTags: Steam, Valve, Hacks (all tags)
According to Valve, there's no evidence that any customer data was removed from their system.
If you're a PlayStation 3 owner then you're already familiar with this sort of thing thanks to a pretty significant data breach just a few months ago. Now it's come to the biggest digital distribution service of PC games.
Valve's Gabe Newell says that they initially discovered the issue when searching out the cause of an intrusion on the Steam forums. Apparently, the people that got into the forums also got into a database full of personal information. "This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information," writes Newell in an apology to Steam users.
"We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders," says Newell, "or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked."
While there's no evidence that anything was taken, Newell still says it's a good idea to keep an eye on your credit card statements just in case.
Source: TechCrunch
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Sony Addresses Outage - Services Will Return When Secure
Mon May 02, 2011 at 10:00 AM ETTags: PlayStation Network, Hacks (all tags)
Sony says it could be as soon as a week from now, but stresses that security is the main concern.
The folks at Sony have a disaster on their hands. Their network has been down for over a week, and user information of every single PlayStation Network user has been compromised. It's about as bad as things can get and Sony is doing what they can to handle it.
They released more information today to update people as to what's been going on. They stress that they're working with law enforcement to find those responsible. They've also stressed that they're going to be working with outside security groups to better protect their system in the future.
In terms of the service coming back up, Sony says that they expect to have at least some things back up and running next week. They're not giving a specific date though, since security is the number one priority. "We want to be very clear," says Sony's official blog, "that we will only restore operations when we are confident that the network is secure."
Source: Official PlayStation Blog
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PlayStation Network Hacked - Customer Information Comprimised
Thu Apr 28, 2011 at 11:30 AM ETTags: PlayStation 3, PSN, Hacks (all tags)
If you're a PSN or Qriocity user, it's time to start changing passwords and checking your credit card statements.
The recent PlayStation Network downtime may have upset gamers, but things have gotten much more serious than simply not being able to play games online. According to Sony, there has been a significant security breach that has resulted in the compromise of all customer data currently on the network.
If you're signed up on the PlayStation Network or Qriocity, your name, email address, online handle, login ID and password were all available to these hackers, as well as your billing address and the security questions for your password.
It gets worse than that. Sony says that they can't rule out the possibility of credit card information being stolen. "If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity," says Sony in an official statement, "out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
Source: Official PlayStation Blog (via The Bonus View
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SamyGo Hack Adds Functionality to Samsung TVs
Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM ETTags: Samsung, Hacks (all tags)
The SamyGo hack for Samsung televisions adds improved networking, better USB playback, and enables the use of non Samsung WiFi dongles.
Not that we encourage this sort of thing, but those inclined to try their hand at a little bit of firmware hacking may find the SamyGo project pretty appealing. Thanks to the use of the Linux kernel in Samsung televisions, the firmware is familiar enough to many developers that they’ve been able to add a bit of functionality to the televisions.
There’s a lot to learn before you can jump into this, though those with programming experience may feel up to the challenge. Those willing to take a shot though will be rewarded with, among other things, the ability to use a non-Samsung WiFi dongle. The hope, according to one of the people heading the project, is to one day get Firefox running on Samsung sets.
While none of this is official of course, many companies keep a close eye on these developments. If hackers are able to get Firefox running on a Samsung TV, or improve video quality, there’s no reason that we shouldn’t expect to see Samsung tackling a similar task in a future firmware update.
Source: Hack A Day
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