FAQ:

Q.1     When did you realise the system had been intruded?

We discovered between April 17 and April 19 there was an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network.

Q.2     How did you know that the system was intruded?

We watch for any issues that may be raised with respect to security and monitor for such issues both internally and externally.

Q.3     What is the main reason to this problem?  Which parts of the system were vulnerable to the intrusion?

We are currently conducting a thorough investigation of the situation.  Since this is an overall security related issue, we will not comment further on this case.

Q.4     What action did you take (are you taking)?  Is there any possibility of further unauthorized access?

As soon as we learned of this issue, 1) we temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services in order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services, 2) we have also engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened, and 3) quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.  

Q.5     How many were affected?  How many per each region? What is the latest status of PlayStation Network registered account/ operating countries.

Our investigation indicates that all PlayStation Network/ Qriocity accounts may have been affected.

Q.6     Does that mean all users’ information was compromised?  Tell us more in details of what personal information leaked.

In terms of possibility, yes.  We believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password, login, password security answers, and handle/PSN online ID.  It is also possible that your profile data may have been obtained, including purchase history and billing address (city, state/province, zip or postal code).  If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, it is possible that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained.

Q.7     Have you notified those users?

We are sending out e-mails directly to these users to their e-mail address registered on the PS Network accounts.  Also, we have posted web notices, and additional necessary procedures have been followed by each region.

Q.8     Have you received reports or claims that their PSN ID information/ credit card had been used improperly?

Not at this point in time.

Q.9     I want to know if my account has been affected.  

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.  Additionally, if you use the same user name or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them.  When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password.
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, postal mail or other 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.  

Q.10     What should I do to prevent any unauthorized use of my (credit card) personal information?  

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, postal mail or other 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.  Additionally, if you use the same user name or password for your PlayStation Network or Qriocity service account for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them.  When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are back on line, we also strongly recommend that you log on to change your password.
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.

Q.11     Since when have PSN/Qriocity become unavailable and in which region?

PSN/Qriocity services have not been available since April 20 (US time) in all regions.

Q.12     How come it is taking so much time to resume the service?

We are taking the investigation seriously.  We decided to keep the service down to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation and verify smooth operation of our network services.

Q.13     How serious is this?  Have the hackers broken the security on PSN/Qriocity?  Are you taking necessary measures to prevent such outage happening in the future?

Since this is an overall security related issue, we will not comment further on this case but we are working to restore and maintain the services, including countermeasures against future intrusions.

Q.14     When will the service resume?

We are taking the investigation seriously.  We will keep the service down to allow us to conduct a thorough investigation and verify smooth operation of our network services but are working hard to resume the services as soon as we can be reasonably assured security concerns are addressed.

Q.15     Seems like SOE service was also not available/ suffering outage.  Is this true?  Is this due to the same reason as the PSN/Qriocity outage?

SOE's service is available although a service interruption due to an external attack did occur. A thorough investigation is ongoing.

Q.16     I want my money back (subscription fee, content) since the PSN/Qriocity was not available.

When the full services are restored and the length of the outage is known, we will assess the correct course of action.

Q.17     There seems to be some games that cannot be played even offline?

Depending on the game titles, but mainly PSN games, some may require access to PSN for trophy sync, security check, etc.

Contact Details

Source: http://faq.en.playstation.com/cgi-bin/scee_gb.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?locale=en_GB&p_faqid=5593

Game updates work for me, I've updated both PAIN and NFS:HP, maybe NV might work.

But he doesn't know mine!!!

This has turned out to be a very huge security breach that is far beyond just fucking with SONY. Granted this action probably had its roots in the whole Anon thing which ahd roots in SONY's retarded lawsuit, but this is quite the predicament SONY got itself in.

I would like to point out it is EXTREMELY incompetent (I know, Anon called them that too) that a huge part of your "security" rests on you hoping the hardware you give people won't be hacked. That is just beyond idiotic and stupid, and well into the " profound mental retardation" territory (it's an actual medical term, look it up). Sony really fucked up yet again (if you remember the rootkit DRM deal, that was in PMR territory as well). Furthermore this information should have been released immidiately. Now I am leaving the door open for the possibility that Sony wasn't aware of what was accessed at first, but I see no reason to not have system that monitors such stuff given the information stored.

On another note, A week or two ago the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was hacked. You barely heard anything about it. But when some bullshit service like the PSN gets hacked? Oh NOES SET THE INTERWEBZ ON FRIE !!111ONE! DAMN THOSE HAXORZ!!!11 Just pointing something absolutely hilarious about the reaction of people given these two incidents.

Edit: I see a lot of people who think that the people who hacked the PS3 caused this. That is just stupid. This was caused by a gaping hole in the servers of PSN, it is solely due to Sony's incompetence to secure their servers.

Think you have misread it mate.

They are saying that

"we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained."

Meaning your psn name, password, registration email, real name, address, birthday, billing address may have been stolen. Meaning they think this info has been accesed.

The "NO EVIDENCE" part is seperate from the above statement. Simply saying

"While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility"

So the way i read it is all 70m of us PSN users could have had our details taken.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

No matter if the PS3 was hacked or not, this NEVER should have happened. Sony should have customer information locked down tight as can be, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER ECOMMERCE COMPANY ON THE PLANET.

This is bullshit, I aint changing my password Sony, you fucking protect my password, how about that.  If any fucking thing I use gets abused or hacked into, I'm fucking finding every other person that had issues and filing a lawsuit against Sony, I am seriously not kidding.  I have been a proud Sony product owner for a couple generations now, and this really makes me wonder if I ever want to buy a Sony product again.

Wow, thanks for waiting so long to tell me this information, assholes.

This is actually kind of a big deal and I know that people know I'm not the biggest Playstation fan but this one has me a little irked.  Not only did they wait a week to tell me this (and they did give us the run around) but now someone very potentially has my name, email address, security question answers, PSN handle and password, *and* I can't even log into the PSN to change all that information.

Yeah, they didn't get my credit card info but I would be willing to bet whoever has this data is patiently waiting for the PSN to go back up so they can log into any number of PSN accounts and cause trouble.

And at least all my accounts have different passwords so I don't have to worry as much as other people, but for everyone that uses the same password for everything (including email) good luck to you!  Someone has a week head start with your email address and password.

They don't know my birthday or address because they are wrong....

I do know I need to change some passwords

Why can't you do that?