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PlayStations, hackers and lawsuits – Liz’s rant

April 28th, 2011 | 2 Comments

The saga that is my story today began sometime last week. My son had hopped on the PlayStation Network only to discover they were undergoing maintenance. To him, the world was coming to an end. No more friends to play Little Big Planet with, no more collaborating on creating new worlds or levels or whatever it is he designs on there, and perhaps most importantly, no more yelling from me to “get off the PlayStation now!”

In all honesty, I think online gaming has the capacity to be Satan incarnate. Just my opinion. Because I have to spend an inordinate amount of time monitoring his every move on there – making sure he doesn’t friend 40-year-old freaks, the dregs of society or otherwise unmonitored 10-year-olds who cuss like sailors.

Truthfully, I was rather enjoying the lack of network availability. Perhaps so much so that Colton approached me Sunday night.

“Mom, if I ask you something, do you promise to tell me the truth?”

“Of course, I’ll tell you the truth. What’s wrong?”

“I’m just wondering if you did something to my PlayStation.”

Would that I could take credit for the week’s worth of peace and quiet that accompanied the error message that read something to the effect that the “network was undergoing maintenance”.

For several days, Sony has been rather quiet about the problems surrounding their video game network. Until now. Sony announced yesterday that the network was hacked in a very major way. In all, some 77 million people’s identities have now been compromised in what could be one of the “biggest data breaches in history,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

So what does that mean? Names, birth dates – even credit card numbers – could all be in the hands of some deranged thief, lacking in moral and civil direction. Here’s what else the story had to say:

Sony warned users the intruders may have accessed billing addresses, purchase histories and account information for their children.

Lovely. Thankfully, I never allowed my kids to use a credit card on the network – either they used their own money to get a network card, or they did without. You can read the story in its entirety here.

I think it’s important to point out that as enraged as I am that this hacker or hackers has perpetrated this crime, the last paragraph of the story sent me over the edge, causing me to question yet again where we’re headed as a society:

“It is infuriating,” said Jennifer Spanner, 30, who said she spends up to 30 hours a week playing games like Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ and using the PlayStation Network to communicate with friends and family overseas.

I’m sure you can see where this is going. Yep, a class action lawsuit has already been filed. According to the story by Dean Takahashi:

The suite seeks monetary compensation for the data loss and loss of access to the network, credit monitoring costs, and other relief.

Kinda makes ya wonder who’s more off-balance. The hacker or grown adults who spend almost the equivalent of a work week on a gaming system, and sue when their play time is interrupted. Just sayin…

-Liz