Yes, this is a blog post about the PSN outage. If you don't want to read anymore about this, please press your back button or click a link on N4G.com to somewhere else.
What I will be addressing in this article, though, is the effect that a single statement has on the Internet. And that statement is:
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"77 million credit cards and personal information was stolen from Sony"
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Now, if you've been around this week on N4G.com, you are very familiar with these words and the many variations of them posted here. But, do you understand what this phrase means to the future of discussions on N4G.com and similar forums?
PART ONE: IS IT A VALID STATEMENT?
No, it's not.
First, it's not 77 million individual users, but every single account created of which there may be more than one per user. I myself have three. My main in North America, one in Hong Kong, and one in the UK. Why do I have multiple accounts? Sometimes free content is limited by region, such as the Afrika dynamic wallpaper was free and only available for a period of time in Japan.
Second, even Sony confirmed that they only stored 10 million credit cards on their system and this information was all encrypted.
Third, and most importantly, there is no proof on what data was or wasn't taken. None whatsoever.
PART TWO: WHY IS IT BEING SAID?
It's a reaction for one or more reasons to the Sony PSN attack and following downtime.
People are afraid of what this means. They're afraid of the possibility of their info being vulnerable. Sure, if they've ever used a credit card online, they've always been vulnerable. But, the instance of a moment that brings to light the chance of this sort of vulnerability is like a kick to the gut for many.
For others, it's an arguing point. The point being that Sony isn't good or that someone else is better. That seems petty, but this is the Internet we're talking about here. If you're not aware of the uses of the failures of one company over another, you must be new to N4G.com and similar gaming forums. Don't worry, it won't take long for you to see it.
PART THREE: WHAT CAN I DO?
Ignore it and don't respond to it. The only reason this phrase is even brought up is to get a reaction out of others. If you ignore it, if you don't respond to it, they will stop using it. It will lose its power and the people who use it will move onto something else.
Even if you respond with logic, you are giving power to this phrase. The power that you need to respond to the invalid elements of it and the power that someone gets over seeing you respond to it at all.
And, yes, the need for this response is even more petty than the statement itself.
PART FOUR: ARE THERE OTHER STATEMENTS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Most undoubtedly. There are hundreds just related to gaming, and they will continue to come.
Here are a few:
- 54% Failure Rate!
- No games!
- No exclusives!
- Just for casuals!
These are statements thrown about every day on N4G.com in one way or another, statements with a point of getting people to respond to them when no response is needed. Statements looking for one thing, and that is someone there to argue the points even though only one side is actually arguing while the other is sitting there, gleeful that they've evoked the desired response to their attempt at trolling.
People complain about the community here, but you should realize that the reason we have so many issues is because many of us respond to them when we should just ignore them and move onto other topics.
Thank you for reading,
cgoodno
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
For a moderator, you sure like to jabs @ users. ;)
kodus Cg.
(btw, can't you approve your own shit lol )
Great post, with great guidelines on how users on a gaming forum or community SHOULD act. Unfortunately, many of them will not be acting as described.
That's how sensationalism works........
Well as to the validity of every "Expert" on the internet and every article. I take it all with a grain of salt.
I will give you my inside knowledge but again take it for what it's worth 'Some anonymous guy on the Internets friend told him".
I used to work as a military intel professional and have a good amount of friends involved in cyber crime and cyber terrorism branches. One of my buddies was actually at sony when they got hacked. They were migrating to larger more secure servers at the time. From his phone calls and stuff it's been crazy. They hired a bunch of the worlds best hackers to come in and track the hacker down. it seems to him that it's all a "Pride" thing and they are paying huge bonuses per exploit. They are providing cots to sleep at. Catering and even wheeling in micro brewery beer by the crate in for them all. he's been having a blast. he said 'It's really funny seeing all these Japanese guys who barely speak English pointing at the beer and saying 'for you, for you'".
However according to him it's kind of futile. Most likely they will find the hackers origin but it will probably be a former soviet republic where they don't extradite.
Now if you believe all I am saying. I have no reason to lie and this friend really is a high paid government contractor that got TDY to go help Sony out as a favor due to his expertise. According to him all the credit card info was stolen as well as the passwords to PSN. Now some good hackers can phone talk their way into places and just google search it. If they have your name, Address, DOB, Credit card info they can possibly get away with a lot. Now if you use the same PSN sign in as your bank and password then A. You are a moron and B. That's how they get people. The only info, Again according to random guy on the Internets friend, they didn't get is the 3 digit pins on the back of cards.
Also realize any system is hackable. People make security and so people can break it... Nothing is ever unbreakable. in the past 2 months did you know exxon, shell, bp, jp morgan, victorias secret, amazon and a large slew of other organizations have had the exact same things happen to them? It's only publicized because of MSNBC and FOX. In a month it could be the 360 that this happens to just as easily... 73 percent of all major companies have been hacked at one point or another. Variances in the amount of info stolen are large but it's still pretty astonishing. Also "Rondom internet dude fact" 65% of all statistics are made up on the spot. But google it if you like it is true. All those places were hacked...
So really the only bad thing I feel is the long downtime. But I know my buddy is working hard and all he says is "It'll be up when it's up"... Which I hate but whatever.Like I said before I played 20 years without the net I can last a week or 2.
Anyway good post bro. Game on and see you when the storm is over. =D
lol
That last part was funny and true.