2011 PlayStation Network outage
2011 outage of PlayStation Network caused by electronic attack
The 2011 PlayStation Network outage (sometimes referred to as the 2011 PSN Hack) was the result of an "external intrusion" on Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, in which personal details from approximately 77 million accounts were compromised and prevented users of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles from accessing the service. The attack occurred between April 17 and April 19, 2011, forcing Sony to deactivate the PlayStation Network servers on April 20. The outage lasted 24 days.
Government officials in various countries voiced concern over the theft and Sony's one-week delay before warning its users. The breach resulted in the exposure and vulnerability of personally identifiable information, including usernames, physical addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, passwords, and financial details such as credit card and debit card information.
Background
Sony had faced some firmware and hacking-related controversies leading up to the outage. In March 2010, Sony launched a firmware update for the PlayStation 3 which removed the ability to install third-party operating systems like Linux. This move sparked significant backlash from the modding community. George Hotz, also known as Geohot, managed to jailbreak the PS3 firmware on January 2, 2011, and began sharing the jailbreak online shortly afterward. In response, Sony sued Hotz on January 11, 2011, for his jailbreaking activities.
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