http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Ballmer-Security-is-Microsofts-Top-Priority/

He said so for every MS product, and so many times that it MUST be true! (In the link's case it was about about one of XP's Service Packs, but, judging from the article date, not the one that eventually really solved the majority of the most serious bugs, holes and flaws). Because people pay for MS products, so they MUST be more secure and have a real TCO lower (Get The Facts!) than those open source cancers unscrupulous soviet hackers like Linyos Torovoltos give away for free to infect innocent people!

History repeat itself: hackers haven't the skill to pierce XBL, because people pay a lot for it, so it must be secure too! (Some VGC user wrote it, so this too must be true). And even if they had the skills, they wouldn't have the balls to face Ballmer's wraths and flying chairs! (Fact about Steve Ballmer: he can hurl a chair at you even through the net, and he doesn't even need ADSL or other high speed connections, he can squeeze it through a 56k analog modem).

Xbox Live was hacked in 2007. but because the different ways data are stored within the respective infrastructures for whatever reasons the hackers who targetted PSN were able to obtain personal information. where as the Live hack was a different thing althogether.

Fair enough. Decennia of disasters eventually taught MS some basic security rules. Luckily for MS and for the part of its users using additional security SW like antivirus and firewall to make up for Windows and IE flaws, most MS security disasters affected the client side. This said, those Sony haters that happen to be also MS fans and brag about XBL security when they bash PSN's one, though, are surely waving a red rag before a mad bull. Also, while both networks are a rich possible booty for identity thieves, XBL, being a pay network also for basic online multiplayer gaming and so having, at the moment, more paying subscribers, is a richer possible booty for thieves interested in CC numbers.

Yeah that's why Internet Explorer has so many security loop holes.

Wasn't there a points generator for the 360 a few months ago that worked? 

I'm interested in when XBL went down for the 11 days...anyone got any info on that? Who, why, when, and how is what I want to know.

I was under the impression that developers were his top priority.

Yes, i agree with this post. the problem is we've had a media panic where we've been told our cc data may have been stolen.

however at this moment, i am not convinced any of our credit card data was at risk - theres no evidence the hackers wanted this data, and no evidence that even if they have taken it whether it can be accessed, since it was incomplete on the PSN database and still encrypted.

what i think is that this has been made a big deal because Sony's level of encryption for our personal details was not as sophisticated as Xbox Live, or iPhone, etc.

which is why i think they attacked PSN and not Xbox Live - they were never after credit card details - only PSN details, PSN details like our names and phone numbers were a lot eaiser to access through PSN rather than Xbox Live (i think).

my point is i dont think our cc details were ever the real target.

Quite likely, yes. And even if they were just looking for the best opportunities, because, for example, they are specialized in selling the data they steal to other thugs that actually use them, personal data happened to be the easiest valuable target, so, either for original intention, or for opportunity, that must really be the main target.

Xmas 2007, 4 days totally down, but more days of instability before the net was stabilized again. Anyway XBL breaches and downs were less serious than this one of PSN, the very reason why MS and its fans should never brag about these issues is that through the years far more personal data and money were stolen and other damages of many kinds done due to the countless Windows, Office and IE flaws and bugs, of which some stayed unpatched for years. MS is quite better now, but it used to be the sloppiest big company about SW quality and security, for example almost 20 years ago it copied a buggy reference MIDI driver made by Roland, Roland obviously corrected the bug, but MS kept on copying the buggy one instead of the patched one in its successive OS' for years. And it did the same also for far more dangerous bugs and holes.