Tuesday, 26 April 2011

PSN got hacked...

PSN went down over the weekend. That's no big deal, people can't play games online... well, it also meant that people can't download the games they own on PSN - which is not so good.

The news got worse. Lovefilm and Netflix - entertainment delivery providers who have services on PSN - also went down.

Now it has emerged that all PSN data has been stolen!

Here is the data that Sony is sure has been compromised if you have a PlayStation Network Account:

* Your name
* Your address (city, state, and zip)
* Country
* E-mail address
* Birthday
* PSN password and login name

"It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained," Sony announced. While the company claims that there is "no evidence" that credit card information has been compromised, it won't rule out the possibility.

Source: Ars Technica

If you use the same password on PSN as other services or whatever online, I suggest you change that password. Also, keep an eye on your credit card account and on the lookout for evidence of identity theft.

Now, I had a think and for me.... I think they have stolen one out of date home address, and two fake overseas addresses.

All the same, I'm furious at Sony for this. The thieves should not know people's passwords. It's the absolute basics - you one-way encrypt passwords. You seed encryption so hackers won't be able to crack the encryption by just having a look at the data. You compare hashes, not passwords. That way it should be impossible for hackers who've just got the data to know what people's passwords are.

If they haven't been doing that, what kind of yahoos are these?

I'd expect hackers who've gotten onto the servers to be able to crack credit card numbers before they know everyone's passwords!

Friday, 22 April 2011

A year of pokewalking


1944690 steps - that's how far I've walked in the past year. Well, when I've been carrying a pokewalker, anyway. Very nearly 2 million steps. No wonder my boots are so worn out.

It averages out as only about half as far as people are supposed to walk in a day to be considered healthy and active...

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Osamu Dezaki has passed away

Osamu Dezaki died recently, at the age of only 67 - of lung cancer.

When I found out the news, I momentarily turned into a detailed painting at the shock of it all.

There's a nice obituary for him on the Manga Entertainment website. They've published quite a few of his films in English, for example Golgo 13, Black Jack, and Space Adventure Cobra.

He is my all-time favourite anime director. He had a long and distinguished career spanning from the 1960s to almost the present day (as a result, I thought he would be older than he was). I'd been slowly making my way through his works, and enjoy the vast majority of what he's done, if not all. I'm currently watching "Hakugei: Legend Of The Moby Dick" and am really enjoying it.

His best works out of what I've seen so far:

* Rose of Versailles (he did the 2nd half of the series)
* Oniisama e
* Ace o Nerae
* Ashita no Joe
* Air (the movie adaptation)

I haven't seen the whole of Ace o Nerae or Ashita no Joe.

I'm feeling quite a sense of loss. May he rest in peace.