Despite previously announced plans to restore at least some features on Sony"s Playstation Network this week, the company has now admitted that it will take longer than originally planned to get the online game service back up and running. In the latest restoration update on the Sony Playstation blog site, Sony Playstation"s head PR rep Patrick Seybold said, "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system."
Seybold refers to the shutdown on Monday of Sony Online"s MMO servers after the network was discovered to have been affected by the same cyber attack that also caused Sony to shut down the Playstation Network back on April 20. The attack exposed the personal info of tens of millions of subscribers to whomever hacked into the servers along with a small amount of older credit card numbers.
In the new update Seybold writes that the company is "still working to confirm the security of the network infrastructure, as well as working with a variety of outside entities to confirm with them of the security of the system." More testing and system checks are needed before Sony feels the Playstation Network can come back online, according to Seybold. He added, " ... our utmost priorities are the security of the network and ensuring your data is safe. We won’t restore the services until we can test the system’s strength in these respects." No new date was given for the restoration of the online servers.