Hackers hit another video game publisher

As Sony continues to struggle with its recent cyberattack, another video game publisher has had its database hacked.

Square Enix has confirmed hackers gained access to a database on Wednesday, taking 25,000 email addresses along with 350 employee resumes.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

The Money Making Game #8: The Sony Situation

We certainly have no problem getting caught up in the fun of playing games, but the people who create them have their pocketbooks to worry about, too. In this column, finance expert and GameSpy contributor Chris Morris guides you through the tricky corridors the gaming industry’s financial side, touching on big-time business decisions and how they matter to the common gamer.

Sony’s not in an enviable position these days. New data breaches are still coming to light after an unprecedented cyber-attack on the company’s online systems. Personal information for over 100 million user accounts is in the hands of possible identity thieves. And the company, after a seemingly endless series of public relations disasters, announced recently that it frankly didn’t know when the PlayStation Network would be fully operational once again — though it was hoping to achieve that by the end of May. Ultimately, this rollercoaster ride from hell has to come to an end. And believe it or not, that’s when the real hard work begins.

Certainly, rebuilding a complex network from the ground up and uncovering the carefully concealed tracks of a sophisticated hacker (or group of hackers) isn’t easy, but it’s goal-driven work that Sony has some semblance of control over. When it comes to repairing its reputation and restoring people’s faith in the company, Sony will encounter a flood of external factors — some fair, some unfair.

Read more at Gamespy

Sony Outdated Software Criticized—Another Hack Coming?

New accusations about Sony’s security procedures are being levied as the company braces for a third possible hack in the coming days.

Eugene Spafford, an information security professor at Purdue, accused Sony of being completely unprepared for the first two attacks during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade earlier this week. The company, he said, was using outdated software on its servers, which allowed hackers to gain access.

Read more at CNBC.com

Sony suffers second major security breach

The data breach into the PlayStation Network continues to worsen.

Sony announced Monday it had discovered another 24.6 million accounts had been hacked, this time in the company’s PC online gaming division. The intrusion is on top of the 77 million accounts that Sony has previously acknowledged were breached.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Sony Details Restoration Plans for PlayStation Network

Nearly two weeks after being the subject of one of the largest data breaches in business history, the PlayStation Network will go back online this week, Sony announced Sunday morning.

The company, which says the service restoration will be a phased one, also discussed several new security enhancements, as well as a program meant to encourage gun shy users to return to the PSN.

Read more at CNBC.com

Hackers Take Down Sony’s PlayStation Network

Hackers have managed to cut Sony off at the knees in several of the most competitive aspects of this generation of video games.

For the past five days, the PlayStation Network has been offline—making it impossible for PlayStation 3 owners to play multiplayer games, download updates to titles or use their PS3 to stream movies and music. This represents the most serious outage the service has faced since its start in 2006.

Read more at CNBC.com

Xbox scammers bilk Microsoft for $1.2 million

That long string of numbers and letters you have to type in when redeeming a Microsoft Points card might seem random, but a group of hackers recently discovered it wasn’t.

Today, Microsoft is licking its wounds after taking a $1.2 million loss once that information was made public.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

The Shared Enemy of Hollywood, Gene Simmons and Hustler

It takes extraordinary circumstances to unite Hollywood filmmakers, one of rock’s most outlandish stars and a porn company. But when you’re facing off against 4chan, any ally is a good one.

4chan, for the unfamiliar, is the Internet’s most infamous message and image board. And its denizens are the online equivalent of Beetlejuice. Mutter their name and they’ll appear, but you may not like the results.

Read more at CNBC.com