Please see below for a letter from Howard Stringer:
Dear Friends,
I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you.
Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. We will settle for nothing less.
To date, there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused, and we continue to monitor the situation closely. We are also moving ahead with plans to help protect our customers from identity theft around the world. A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.
As we have announced, we will be offering a “Welcome Back” package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.
As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible.
I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It’s a fair question. As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken.
As a result of what we discovered we notified you of the breach. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defenses will be even stronger.
In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event – a criminal attack on us — and on you — and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible.
In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for – all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony.
With best regards,
Howard Stringer
Thank you kind sir. Let’s not make the same mistakes again, shall we?
that was nice.
I understand people will be rewarded with free PS+, but what about the people (like me) that are already PS+ members?
It’s all good Sony. Got tonnes of Single Player trophies waiting to be synced :P
Kool!
Instead of a couple of days, how about tonight, midnight, 12am EST, would be very very very good! =D
@ Amnalehu
Read dude… really?
“as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.”
Great! Nice to know that PS is going to be stronger than ever!
at least they are doing the right thing to protect us.
@Amnalehu
Seriously? Your really asking that question when its been answered several times before? Do people even take the time to read press releases, or do they just go and ask questions first?
Heeeeey.
SNEA seems on the move tonight with all these posts…….
Could the flood of new posts mean PSN will be back on tonight?
I almost cried when reading this, that’s how happy I am. :P
Thanks Sony for everything!
Thanks for the apology but can we get Cross game voice chat already? Whats the hold up… THIS WOULD MAKE UP FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A question, the non-Plus-user who is granted the free PSN+ month will be unable to use the free-Games/DLC as soon as their free-month expire? If that so, it seems to me only as a PR stunt instead of a really reward to those users.
@ mixedkidbx Lets hope for the best that it will be up tonight or tomorrow morning.
I for one can’t wait for the PSN to be back up and running, it’s times like these when you find out how you can take certain things for granted that are always usually there without you knowing till its gone.
will Not be on tonight as he said in coming days sunday monday. maybe saturday but that will never happen..
SONY WE WANT A EXACT DATE.
I have lost a lot of faith in Sony over the last couple of months so Sony has a lot of work ahead of them winning me over again. Just waiting for PSN to come back up so i can get some online gaming in. Portal 2 coop must happen eventually.
The communication is appreciated. Thank you.
this is great, thanks. i was wondering if all the psn content that was orginally supposed to come up the past 2 weeks will be their or do we need to wait for that to come up as well?
Think about it, if you guys gave us cross game voice chat PSN would re-launch and be better then ever before!! PLEASE GIVE US CROSS GAME VOICE CHAT!! PLEASE!!
PSN coming back soon I can feel it lol
The PS3 is my first Sony console that I have ever owned and I can say that I have enjoyed every minute of owning it since 2008.
I have gladly bought games and items from PSN and will continue to do so with my debit card.
We’re in an entirely different gen where we are more connected than ever (through online services) and something like this is bound to happen and most likely will happen to some other entertainment company as well.
This event will NOT make me abandon the PS3 or PSN, and I look forward to the library of games being released this year, and I am very satisfied with the way Sony is handling the situation, not rushing to get things back online without securing their servers, and I am glad they are opening up the $1 Million per person protection program That is very respectful of them all things considering.
I thank you for the personal message Howard. We, your loyal fans will not back off because of low-life hackers.
sweet, i like the idea of a welcome back package :)
”In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun” Pretty sure they will let us know at least the day before. It’s not like they don’t want us to know. Guessing and speculation only makes it harder.
@15 Cess_007MX
Yea the Plus as a welcome back seems like something they were probably going to do eventually, network down or not. Or should have done earlier when the service was 1st invented.
Basically PS Plus for all is just Sony getting more people to join the paid service and get some extra revenue in. I think it’s a brilliant business move that I figured was too obvious for Sony to do. It’s a cheap apology gift that has some good business motives behind it.
they said in the coming days it will be released
I just want PSN back :(
That’s all well and good, but when exactly is the PSN going to be back up?
“Coming Days” could be tomorrow or it could be weeks from now.
thank you… your compensation is too much :)
@28 The1stMJC
I myself i’m a PSN+ user, but i know before signing to the service that everything i’ll get for free will only remain that way if i keep on the Plus service (the free month, plus the 3 months bonus when the service was announced seems still seems like a nice deal to me)
But that’s no the case of those non-Plus users who will get some free stuff but won’t be able to use it as the month ends. It seems a bit unfair to me (and a lame reward), =/
I dont want Ps+. i want PS store credit 60 dollars will do.
i was waiting for this type of letter from top executives, well done
im loving my PS3 even offline, so when PSN comes back it will be a great experience to get back into the wonderful offerings of PSN.
cant wait!!
This was a good post, however, what I think everyone really wants is a solid date for the re-arrival of the PSN. There are some big name titles coming up as well, and certainly the PSN must be up by then to avoid an even harsher back lash. (Honestly not sure why people are so interested in brink in the first place but w/e… people are fps junkies -_)
Please have the PSN up this week. Pwease :P
Lots of updates tonight. This is what it should have been like since day one. All I can say is that I’m glad to hear about the identity services being provided and I CANNOT WAIT TO GET BACK TO MY PLAYSTATION!
Also, are current PS+ subscribers getting one month PLUS time for the outage? I mean its almost been a month in outage itself, I think we deserve a little more than a simple reimbursement.
Mr. Stringer, thank you for the letter of apology. As a PS3 and PS Plus loyal brand member and, after reading your letter, I have to say that your letter was what I was waiting for in order to put my mind at ease.
@Ramage
Again….. go back and read all the posts that explain how the PS+ credits will work and you will have your answers.
Thank you.
But to be honest, if anything, it’s the (initial) lack of communication that truly angered me. Having data stolen is an unfortunate accident and I do NOT hold you accountable. It’s beyond your control what others do.
However, you DO have control over your PR, which is sub par by comparison to, say, Amazon, which, after having their cloud servers disabled the same time PSN did, provided everything in meticulous details and with complete transparency to all their customers, and acted in a timely fashion. Your lack of communication and vague “updates,” by comparison, made me question my loyalty for Sony. *That* is what set me off the most.
Again, I hope that there is a silver lining, better measures to enhance security are in place (as you said), but even more so you need swift responses AND a back-up server. This is not so “I canz play COD!!11,” but because many developers, especially small or “indie” ones would losing a lot of money for projects they dedicated hours to.
Once again, thank you. I’m as thrilled as you guys are to put all this mess behind me. But I hope you take what I said into consideration.
Sounds good =^)
PR is important but I am glad they waited to give accurate info instead of “Umm We were wrong and it’s more like..” Do try to think for a second, You start an investigation and post something and a day later find all your conclusions wrong.
Thank you, Mr. Stringer for the letter of apology. Still a loyal Sony, PS3, and PS Plus fan.
Thanks Mr. Stringer. Unlike some people, I believe Sony has dealt with this with as much grace as any company could.
Thank you.
I consider Sony as much a victim as any of us users. Thank you, kind sir, for the years worth of identity theft protection, for extending my PS+ subscription, and for whatever free content is made available. I shall make good use of it.
how cool would it be if they got us the Black Ops map pack early as part of there good will package?
huuu? :) good idea to meee
hint hint, nudge… wink… Sony??? pull some strings ;)
Please :) :) :)
@Jersquall
Providing little, and often vague, updates allows for rumours and grand speculations on a massive scale.
When Sony initially said what happened (“credit card info may be stolen”), rumours ran amok, for example, our credit card data was sent in clear text, unencrypted. Where Sony left blanks, supposed “expert” from random sites filled these blanks with outrageous rumours. When Sony didn’t update, people turned to these so-called “news” for info, and you know how to them view count is more important than journalistic integrity.
My point is, where Sony didn’t update, or was vague, people made their own speculations and those transcended into ‘truths.’ Everything that was deemed “rumour” was making headlines, which hurt Sony even more.
(cont).
Id Theft Protection, Nice..That I can not argue with.