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PSN hacking suspect sentenced to house arrest for destroying evidence

Danny Cowan — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00:00 EST

This week, 23-year-old Ohio resident Todd M. Miller was sentenced to a year of house arrest for destruction of evidence and obstructing a federal investigation into a 2008 hacker-led PlayStation Network breach.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that US District Judge Peter C. Economus said Miller was a member of the KCUF hacking clan in 2008 when the group organized an attack on the PlayStation Network, potentially compromising user data.

The FBI contacted Miller while investigating another hack in 2011 that resulted in an extended PSN outage. After obtaining a search warrant, the FBI entered Miller's home to find that his computers were smashed and his hard drives were missing. Lacking evidence to bring up Miller and another suspect on hacking charges, the FBI instead charged Miller with obstructing the investigation.

While Miller faced up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, he was sentenced to three years of probation and a year of house arrest for obstruction of justice. The judge additionally ordered Miller to obtain a high-school equivalence certificate, as part of his sentencing.

PSN hacking suspect sentenced to house arrest for destroying evidence originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK government fines Sony for 'serious' 2011 PSN breach, Sony to appeal

JC Fletcher — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:30:00 EST

The UK Information Commissioner's Office has fined Sony £250,000 for the offense of having been hacked in 2011. The office called the infamous PlayStation Network hack "a serious breach of the Data Protection Act."

The ICO found that the attack was preventable "if the software had been up-to-date," and passwords were not sufficiently protected. "The penalty we've issued today is clearly substantial," said Deputy Commissioner and Director of Data Protection David Smith, "but we make no apologies for that. The case is one of the most serious ever reported to us. It directly affected a huge number of consumers, and at the very least put them at risk of identity theft."

Sony plans to appeal the ruling, according to a statement passed on by BBC reporter Steph McGovern.

UK government fines Sony for 'serious' 2011 PSN breach, Sony to appeal originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Class action lawsuit from PlayStation Network hack mostly dismissed

Jessica Conditt — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EST

Federal Judge Anthony Battaglia dismissed several key claims of a class action lawsuit leveled against Sony after 2011's PSN hack. Battaglia's order dismissed such claims as negligence, restitution, unjust enrichment, bailment and violations of California consumer protection statutes, Courthouse News reported.

Battaglia found that Sony didn't violate consumer protection laws because "none of the named plaintiffs subscribed to premium PSN services, and thus received the PSN services free of cost." Additionally, the privacy policy that all subscribers signed included "clear admonitory language that Sony's security was not 'perfect,'" and "no reasonable consumer could have been deceived."

The bailment charge was dropped because "plaintiffs freely admit, plaintiffs' personal information was stolen as a result of a criminal intrusion of Sony's Network," Battaglia wrote. "Plaintiffs do not allege that Sony was in any way involved with the Data Breach."

Battaglia offered the class an option to amend its claims for injunctive relief and violation of consumer protection law.

Class action lawsuit from PlayStation Network hack mostly dismissed originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Anonymous: PSN hacked again, 10 million accounts at risk [update: Perhaps not]

JC Fletcher — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:20:00 EST

A tweet by hacker group Anonymous links out to a document titled "Sony Hacked (LEAK) Playstation Network Pwned," containing a list of email addresses and what appears to be hashed passwords.

The hacker claims to have about 50 gigabytes of information beyond what's in the document, and about 10 million accounts are "at risk." "Yes, if you play PlayStation Network, you're included <3." So yeah, change your passwords, remove your credit card info from your account. Unfortunately, you know the drill by now.

Update: Kotaku reports that the list in the Pastebin doc is a copy of a seemingly unrelated list of email addresses from March 2012, called "Email accs! // universe security sucks." The PSN hack, in other words, appears to be a rumor that didn't turn out to be true. We're checking with Sony regardless.

Still, when was the last time you changed your password?

Anonymous: PSN hacked again, 10 million accounts at risk [update: Perhaps not] originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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