Another 93,000 Sony accounts hacked

Sony announced hackers have breached about 60,000 PlayStation Network accounts as well as 33,000 Sony Entertainment accounts. According to details released by Sony Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger, hackers obtained a large amount of user data from other companies or websites, and used a brute-force attack to hack the Sony accounts:

According to Sony, the hackers obtained a large amount of user data from other companies or websites. The hackers were attempting to sign-in to numerous accounts using ID and password pairs, and while the �overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts� there were still approximately 93 thousand accounts (globally) in which the hackers succeeded.

Of those 93 thousand accounts, 60 thousand were PSN accounts and 33 thousand were SOE accounts. Reitnger had this to say regarding the hacked accounts:

�Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates as we have them. Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk. We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet.�

More info at Vivid Gamer.

Another 93,000 Sony accounts hacked - More news at DV Hardware

Battlefield 3 beta hacked, Dice threatens EA account ban

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The open beta for Battlefield 3 has already been hacked to allow users to host their own servers and unlock alternate game modes and features. But take caution, as Dice has warned that users found playing on hacked servers could face harsh consequences.

A team of hackers has allegedly gotten their hands on the files needed to host your own Battlefield 3 beta server. Those hosting their own server can remove the player cap on one of the beta maps called Operation Metro. The user limit is set at 32 (16 per team) by default but hacked servers can push this limit up to 128 simultaneous players.

A Dice rep has apparently chimed in on the situation, stating that they are aware that a number of unauthorized servers are online. The rep recommends avoiding the temptation to play on these servers while the issue is being dealt with. Furthermore, anyone playing on these servers risks having their account banned by EA, says PC World.

Such a ban would not only mean you couldn’t play Battlefield, but also any other EA title. As of writing it appears the original form post has gone missing, although several other news outlets are reporting on the story.

Battlefield 3 will be released in its entirety on October 25 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s probably best to play it safe and stick to official EA servers for now. Official servers are configured to run 32 players on the Operation Metro map under the Rush game type.