Oh, Sony. What a terrible mess you've gotten yourself into. It's true that things are finally starting to look up, and a plan is in place to bring PSN back, but not in recent memory has there been a debacle on the level as this. Sony's online service has been hacked, passwords and credit card information (probably) stolen, leaving the temporary downtime of PSN as the only logical choice. Now that the service is on the mend and a customer compensation plan is in place, will it be enough good will to bring the people back home?
After a little over a week and a half of relative silence, Sony addressed their PSN problem in a press conference this weekend. Up until that point there was much speculation as to how this kind of problem could be made up to the millions of potentially pissed off gamers. The first thing that people wanted was an apology, which we got in spades from Kaz Hirai, followed by an action plan for restoring the internet to the Playstation 3.
Over the next couple weeks, PSN will slowly be brought back up and the "Welcome Back" program will be instated. Wait, what's this "Welcome Back" thing? People lost valuable time on the PSN, and potentially money due to the credit card leaks. In return undisclosed software will be given to PSN customers as well as a free month of Playstation Plus–Sony's premium subscription program–, and a month of Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for existing customers of the service.
Now, I know that personal credit information was likely leaked to the attackers, so this "Welcome Back" program doesn't seem like much. Not many people that I know use Playstation Plus or have ever heard of Qriocity, let alone stream music from it. A free game is cool and all but is this all enough to satisfy the blood lust people now have over Sony? For the more furious people, probably not.
On a personal level, I'm very okay with having a free game and another month of Playstation Plus. Plus is one of those services that you don't realize how good it is until you try it out. I'm not a Sony fanboy by any means, but as long as Sony takes care of any credit related theft and pays out to the customers actually affected by the attacks, I'm happy with their response. As for other people, they're livid. The thought of money being grabbed from their wallets is a frightening realization. Even a Canadian law firm wants the company to pay for the entire country's credit and fraud monitoring system for the next two years; a hefty bill that will run around the $1 billion mark.
If these measures do not fulfill the type of reasonable compensation you expect from a security breach of this magnitude, then don't just bitch about it on Twitter. Take your thoughts and organize them into an email to Sony. If you tell them your issues with their handling of this situation, and if others demand the same, there's always the possibility of an amendment to the current compensation. In the mean time I implore you to change your passwords of your email addresses and watch your online bank statements like a hawk.
It's true that the apologies did come way too late, as well the important information on the hacking and subsequent shutdown of the service. I have a feeling that we haven't heard the last of the PSN security breaches and not in a good way. As of the writing of this article a few claims have been made of consumers' credit cards being used for fraudulent purchases due to the PSN hack. As time goes on my greatest fear is that the reports will worsen, and if they do then Sony will have an even bigger mess on their hands.
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