'We’re terribly sorry,' Sony says; gives no new data for solving PlayStation glitch

After keeping millions of PlayStation users on tenterhooks over the possible date of resumption of the gaming services, Sony issued another apology on Tuesday, and promised no new deadline for the restoration of the network.

Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold wrote on the PlayStation blog: “I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least be a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.”

Sony had earlier said the PlayStation network, which has been down since April 19, would come back to life on May 8. Sony had promised on May 6 that comprehensive system checks were being carried out, as also an investigation into the details of the hack attack last month that forced Sony to pull the plug off the network after it was revealed that sensitive data about millions of users had been compromised.

After dithering for a week, Sony revealed last month that a security breach in its online videogame service and Qriocity streaming video and music service had compromised data pertaining to as many as 77 million customers.

Ever since the massive security breach came to light and fears spread that hackers might have got crucial information pertaining to credit card numbers, purchase history and password security details of millions of members, Sony has taken a series of measures besides pulling the plug on services like gaming and music streaming.

Sony apologized for one of the largest security breaches in history and offered damages to the affected users.
Meanwhile, the Anonymous claimed again that they had not hacked the PlayStation network, leading to the massive data breach. However an Anonymous audio statement said individual members may have been responsible for this.

Sony' recent troubles stemmed from the battle it was waging with legendary PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz, who kept posting PS3 exploits onto his personal website. While Sony took Hotz, also known as Geohotz, to court over this it also assiduously worked with Internet Service Providers, Paypal and YouTube to lay hands on the IP addresses of users who viewed the exploits.

This angered digital privacy warriors who vowed revenge on Sony for its alleged privacy invasions, triggering several denial of service attacks and other data breaches.

While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves, AnonOps was not related to this incident and does not take responsibility for whatever has happened, the statement posted on Tuesday on Anonops.blogspot.com said.