I am the owner of a Playstation 3. I do have an account with the Playstation Network, which recently has been in the news due to an attack on the network that prompted Sony to shut the PSN network down. The last few weeks has been a multitude of news, as everyone’s eyes were on the Royal Wedding (which that overshadowed the serious storm that hit Alabama), and now, with the death of Osama bin Laden, this huge security breach may have yet to reach everyone (though Sony has sent a mass email to customers, but whether all 77 million customers of the PSN, who knows?).

I want to be quick to point out, the last few times I used the Playstation store, it was with funds from a gift card. Plus, I check my account regularly, as everyone should do anyway. When I shop online, or anything in which I may provide a billing/shipping address, phone, and, well, credit card data, I understand risks even if they should have encrypted connections (SSL). My memory of the last time I used a credit card to fund my Playstation Network wallet for use to purchase games and add-ons or TV shows/movies is a bit fuzzy. I want to say that there was a checkbox to allow Sony to store credit card data, if so, I unchecked it. There’s no need for online service to store that sensitive data, unless it’s for regular transactions and is a very trusted company. Even still, one should always be cautious.

Why am I going on like this? Because I don’t have hate towards Sony. Network security can never be 100% secured. There’s no such thing. So while others are saying they are gonna switch to XBOX or whatever, fine. When PSN comes back up, I’ll get my password changed ASAP and continue to use it. People HAVE to remember that nothing is 100%. 99.9%, sure, but never 100%. So, there’s also the chance for the same thing, or something similar to happen within the XBOX network. Not too long ago, there were some “congestion” issues with Amazon servers used for cloud-base computing, causing an outage. Big companies, small companies, it doesn’t matter. If you use a service, at some point, there is gonna be some form of failure. And for the record, I find cloud-computing useful to some degree, but I still prefer things I may need to be stored locally.

April 20 was when PSN was shut down, and almost a week later is when Sony said something. That’s what I’m pissed about. As I tried to log-in, so I can watch Netflix, I just couldn’t sign it. I got some “Maintenance” message. They claimed they waited ’til they had more information, but that was their mistake. They should’ve alerted the public that there was an intrusion as soon as they knew. They could’ve put out that they were still investigating, and to check back on their blog for more info as its known, whatever. Even mentioning that, to go with the “Better Safe, Than Sorry” phrase, warn consumers that credit info could’ve been stolen, so they could’ve immediately taken extra precautions with their credit cards.

A lot of “Should’ve, Would’ve, Could’ve,” another thing a lot of companies seem to go through. Also, with PSN down, it wasn’t until yesterday they shut down Sony Online Entertainment, which operates “EverQuest.” Though it’s a separate service, for safety of the public, it probably would’ve been better to take it down. You know, just to be “safe than sorry.”

So, even if you don’t use any Sony service, especially their gaming networks, you still should always be proactive when it comes to YOUR credit account. The real villains here are the hackers, not Sony (except, their delay with news, they really should’ve mentioned it sooner).

If you have a PSN account, you should check your credit card statements (or check online for recent transactions). For more info, visit Playstation Blog for latest news concerning PSN/Qriocity services, Q&A for other questions you may have (they may have been answered), and/or the Knowledge Center with information of what you can do to protect yourself against possibly ID Theft and other info to how you can check your credit.