#PSNocalypse2k11: What caused the Playstation Network outage and when is it going to end
(CBS/What's Trending) Sorry gamers: I know it's been five days, but the Playstation Network is still down.
Although Sony finally admitted that a hacker -- err, I guess the PC term these days is "external intrusion" -- is what messed up the system, which boasts 70 million accounts, it seems that the company is nowhere near to fixing whatever broke. As a result, the Internet has filled with paranoid ramblings from gamers who still remain hopeful that the system will be back right after dinner.If they wanted to assuage the fears of gamers, they would have at least addressed the top 5 questions that IGN posted about the outage, which ranges from the dreaded credit card information leak to what caused the outage exactly. Instead, Sony Playstation's latest update says that there's no news, and they will have to retool the system. (Seriously, what a waste of blog space. At least, you could give us a time frame!) So, what's the real story? Pieced together from the Interwebs, here's what I gather: - For once, Anonymous is NOT behind this. Don't believe us? Check out their "For once we didn't do it" post - According to PC World, "external intrusion" means that it wasn't a DDOS attack, but instead, it's likely the handy work of one individual. Yes, you read that right, one person might have brought the entire system down. Geohot, what did you do this time!? (We kid. Playstation settled with the famed PS3 hacker on March 31, and geohot (real name: George Hotz) donated all the extra legal fund money he raised to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), so we're not pointing the blame finger at him... yet.)
- Sony doesn't know if your personal information was compromised, so it's probably best you keep a close eye on your credit card statements - Hint, hint Sony: Fans are pissed, but will probably be less angry if they get compensated For now, all you can do is sit back and reminisce about the good old days. Or, if you're an Xbox Live member, help your fellow gamers out and share your account with them in this difficult time. We hear that "Portal 2" withdrawal can be particularly hard to get through.
