Late on Thursday, CNet reported via unnamed sources that online hackers were preparing to launch a new cyber attack on Sony"s Playstation Network servers. Today, CNet has an update on that original story claiming, again via unnamed sources, that Sony managed to defeat the cyber attack that was planned to launch this past weekend.
In fact CNet is patting itself on the back a bit, claiming that "our publication of the group"s plan may have caused Sony to secure the remaining servers this group claims it had access to, shutting off any avenues for another attack." It used Internet Relay Chat logs as proof, reporting that one of the alleged hackers wrote on IRC, "Apparently Sony saw that article because the last server that I could access is offline now...its probbaly (sic) being patched like the other servers. There goes our window."
Sony"s Playstation Network has been down since April 20 after a cyber attack on the network"s servers was found to have exposed the personal info from tens of millions of the network"s users. The attack also affected the MMO servers from Sony Online Entertainment which have been shut down for a week now. There"s still no word on when either network will come back online but Sony has promised to give the affected customers free fraud protection and free content once the servers come back online. Earlier today a Bloomberg story said that Sony was planning to fully restore the service by May 31. However VentureBeat now reports that story was in error and that Sony made no such statement.