No doubt by now you've heard all about the Playstation Network, and how it was attacked by hackers almost a month ago. Xbox users have been gloating, PS3 users have been distraught, scare stories have been circulated in the news about how people's credit cards have been compromised. Who would do such a thing, one wonders? Unfortunately, the days of hackers hackin' for shits and giggles seem to be over, and it seems increasingly likely that criminal gangs, after your vital information to sell on to scammers, may be to blame.
It is a terrible shame that something so dramatic might happen to such a large and high profile organisation as Sony, but we have to look at the facts. This kind of thing is happening all the time to all kinds of different companies. At the start of the year, Lush Cosmetics found their database to be compromised [source] and was forced to suspend all online sales while the security was ramped up. Having bought products from them, I did the only sensible thing, and kept an eye on my bank account for any irregularities. Luckily, there were none. The moral of the story is "be vigilant", I suppose.
PSN is not the only games network to suffer from the fraudsters, however. I have heard a few vague stories about Xbox Live accounts being hacked, and cards being cloned. Whilst all this evidence is purely anecdotal, it raises the same points. Keep an eye on your finances and be smart with your passwords. One poor lady recently told me a story about how unexplained charges had been made to her credit card. After consulting her son, who "knew nothing about it" and Microsoft, who were dismissive and unhelpful, she got in touch with her bank, who in the end looked into the matter and refunded all the charges made by the fraudster. This lady was lucky, but from this I can only make one cynical assumption. Kids lie.
Have you been affected by credit card fraud? Has your Live account been hacked? Are you just miffed about PSN? I'd love to hear from you!
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