Hacking on PlayStation 3

Sony on Wednesday denied that it disabled log-ins for the PlayStation Network today due to another hacking incident.
"Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved. In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed," Patrick Seybold, Sony's senior director of corporate communications and social media, wrote in a blog post.


Online log-ins are still down for PlayStation.com, PlayStation forums, PlayStation Blog, Qriocity.com, Music Unlimited via the web client, and all PlayStation game title Web sites. Users still have access via the PlayStation 3 and PSP devices.

"Consumers who haven't reset their passwords for PSN are still encouraged to do so directly on their PS3. Otherwise, they can continue to do so via the Web site as soon as we bring that site back up," Seybold wrote.

Seybold did not provide a timeline for when that might occur or elaborate on the URL exploit that prompted the downtime. But according to Eurogamer and Nyleveia.com, there was a glitch with Sony's PlayStation Network password system that allowed a hacker to change your password armed only with your PSN account email address and date of birth.

"We for rather obvious reasons do not want to elaborate further on the exact details of the exploit, on the off chance that when the web based interface for PSN is restored the exploit has not been patched," according to Nyleveia.com, which alerted Sony to the exploit.

This latest problem comes days after Sony started putting its PlayStation network back online after an extended downtime. It hasn't been completely smooth sailing; an influx of users trying to change their passwords prompted Sony to temporarily halt the process earlier this week.