MyCRA Specialist Credit Repair Lawyers

Tag: PS3

  • Sony dangles a carrot to entice users back to its system

    Sony has offered a sweetener in the hope that most of its 17 million users will be enticed back to using its services after the PlayStation data breach last month.

    Sony has offered its customers a ‘welcome back’ package that includes 30 days of free access to PlayStation Plus, 30 days of free access to Music Unlimited by Qriocity, as well as free identity theft monitoring from Debix, and a promise of free downloads in the future.

    In the video message below to customers, Executive Deputy President of Sony, Kazuo Hirai says all PS3 customers must change their PSN and Qriocity account passwords upon their return.

    “Your new password can only be changed on the same PS3 in which your account was activated or through validated e-mail confirmation,” Hirai said. Customers will also have to update their PS3 firmware to receive the latest security patches,

  • Privacy Commissioner Investigates Sony Data Breach

    On April 27 I posted about the Sony PlayStation data breach which occurred on April 17 and has possibly affected PlayStation users worldwide.

    To update this issue, yesterday the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim revealed findings from his initial investigation into the data breach:

    “Yesterday, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) advised me it had discovered that hackers may have obtained SOE customer information. SOE has said that the information was held in an out dated database from 2007 and contained approximately 12,700 non-US customer credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates.  It is unclear at this point how many of these customers are Australian citizens or recipients.”

    Australian Victim Ot The Sony PlayStation Identity Theft Issue Lost $2000

     “This latest incident is extremely worrying. I am particularly concerned that it involves information stored on an out of date database. It reinforces my view that organisations need to consider further limiting the amount of information they collect and store about people. They should also make sure that information is destroyed when it is no longer needed as is required under the Privacy Act” he says.

    In my last post I called for Australia’s legislation to come up to date with what is occurring worldwide. Being part of the technological network means we are part of the global network and therefore we cannot deny that security threats in any country and particularly the United States could have an impact on us here in Australia as it has done in this instance.

    In fact, current statistics show that high-tech crime costs Australians $15billion per year, and the Australian Crime Commission now sites identity theft as the fastest growing crime in Australia.

    What is encouraging is the Australia Law Reform Commission’s recommendation that consideration should be given to the introduction of mandatory data breach notification laws. This means that when something of the nature of the Sony PlayStation data breach or the recent Dell Computers data breach occurs in the future, there will be an obligation for the company to notify its customers in this country of the occurrence.

    What is also being considered by the Government is more power for the Privacy Commissioner to impose penalties following an ‘own motion investigation’, such as enforceable undertakings and civil penalties for serious breaches of privacy. So if this part of the recommendations becomes legislation, the Privacy Commissioner would be able to penalise those companies which are found liable in relation to privacy breaches.

    In the meantime, Sony recommends its customers take these steps to help protect their personal data:

    “For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking.

    When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well. To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports” says Sony’s Patrick Seybold.

    In Australia we can check our credit file for free by obtaining a credit report with credit reporting agencies Veda Advantage, Dun & Bradstreet or Tasmanian Collection Agency. A copy of our credit rating is then sent within 10 working days. Or for a fee they will supply one urgently.

    If there are any errors on this file, including evidence of identity theft, it is possible the credit file can be repaired.

    Contact www.mycra.com.au for more information.

  • Identity theft danger – PlayStation account information hacked worldwide

    PlayStation users should contact their banks immediately.

    Sony Australia has confirmed today that the personal information of all PlayStation Network account holders worldwide has fallen into the wrong hands.

    All users are now at grave risk of identity theft with the hackers having access to all names, addresses, email addresses, birthdates, usernames, passwords, logins, security questions and more. The NSW Police fraud squad says this is enough information for the hackers to even take out loans on the vicitms’ behalf.

    PS1 PS2 PS3 Play Station playstation

    Detective Superintendant Col Dyson from the NSW Police fraud squad spoke with Brisbane Times reporter Asher Moses about the scandal. See the full story http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/games/playstation-hacking-scandal-police-chief-says-contact-your-bank-now-20110427-1dvts.html.

    Det. Sup. Dyson says those who obtained the personal information could use it to commit identity crimes.

    “Personal or financial information is a valuable commodity and generally these days we find organised groups harvesting information and then selling it to other groups to use” he says.

    Affected Australians are advised to consider cancelling their credit cards or at the very least call their banks to inform them that their cards may have been compromised. People should also change their passwords if they use their same PlayStation Network password for other services.

    This scandal personally affects me and my family as we are one of those 77 million global users who are potentially at risk.

    What worries me as much as this breach having occurred, is the length of time it has taken Sony to inform its customers. The breach occurred as early as possibly April 17. This means the hackers have had a whole week to use our information or on-sell it to professional fraudsters before we (the public) could do anything about it.

    In Australia, we do not have mandatory notification laws for when data breaches occur. We are not ‘covered’ for when these instances happen and there is no obligation for companies to inform us when our personal information has been compromised.

    The Federal Government must realise that Australians cannot escape being part of a global marketplace, and as such our government has an obligation to protect us from possible identity theft in that marketplace.

    The Australian Crime Commission points to identity theft as being the ‘fastest growing crime in Australia’. http://www.crimecommission.gov.au/media/faq/financial_crime.htm. 

    It certainly feels that way on days like this.

    There is more our government can do and there’s more we as a nation can do to ensure we don’t fall behind when it comes to personal information security. This includes everyone getting educated on how identity crime can potentially affect us.

    Identity theft can hit twice – once when we are first scammed, then secondly when our credit files are damaged. When someone steals our identity it can often mean a series of defaults on our credit files. Defaults can ruin a credit rating for up to 5 years – so essentially we pay for 5 years for being victims of identity theft unless we go about having our credit files repaired after the damage has occurred.

    Recently we worked with the Federal Police to help repair the credit file of an identity theft victim. Basically the victim was unable to obtain credit at all with those defaults on her file – even though she was not the cause of them. We eventually got the defaults removed for her, but it was a difficult process and one she said she would have found almost impossible to do on her own.

    So as a PlayStation user, and realising how deep this could go, be on the lookout for scams. Be wary of any strange calls, any emails asking for confirmation of personal details and credit card details and do contact your bank immediately.

    Visit www.mycra.com.au for more information on identity theft and credit files and how we can protect ourselves.

    http://mycra.com.au/blog/2011/03/identity-theft-the-ticking-time-bomb-in-australia/

    Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net