Hackers who were looking to hurt Sony may have been successful with the company set to lose millions in revenue after their Playstation Network was bought down during one of the busiest holiday periods of the year.The Japanese company may also face claims from disgruntled owners of consoles and IP enabled Sony TVs and Blu ray players, who have paid to get access to Playstation content only to find that they cannot network with other users during the Easter period when a lot of people are on holiday and want access to content.
Sony has also sold Bravia TVs and Blu ray players to consumers, claiming that they can access movies on the Playstation network .
The company said that it has been forced to rebuild its PlayStation Network to bring it back online after an “external intrusion” caused it to suspend the service.
The network, that is currently closed indefinitely, has been down since last Wednesday. At first Sony said there had been a “minor problem”. This escalated into an investigation of what was described as an” external intrusion”.
Then on Thursday night the company, who are tipped to report big losses next month, said that it could take a “full day or two” to get the service back up and running.
On Saturday, the company said in a blog post that it was “working around the clock” to bring the services back online.
In Australia, Sony customers are unable to access its gaming, movie, and Qriocity music services.
Sony has not explained why they were not operating a backup system that could be restored in hours and not days after the hacker group Anonymous gave the company a clear warning days out from the network being taken down that they were targeting Sony and their Playstation operation.
One observer said: “It looks like Sony did not take the hackers seriously. I believe that they are trying to install a new security system around their Playstation network. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to be hacked again”.
