Any of you with a PS3 will already know the PSN network has been down since the 17th April.

Sony didn't release any details about why it was down for nearly 6 days... and then released an official statement which can be read here: http://uk.playstation.com/home/news/...ervice-Update/

So after guessing what had happened, we find out it was due to the network being breached by a hacker. Sony took the network down as a safety measure as soon as they realised someone had hacked in and potentially stolen personal data from members accounts, possibly as many as the whole 70 million users personal details (including full name, address, login usernames and passwords, and even credit card details!).

To say this is a bad attack is an understatement. It probably has to be one of the worst on record, and you have to wonder why it wasn't more secure, especially where members payment details and other sensitive data is concerned. Or was it secure and the hackers were just that good? Maybe even an inside job or ex-employees!

Do you think the cracking of the PS3 firmware/OS is to some extent to blame? After all, how else would anyone be able to look into the inner workings of the PS3 and get an understanding of its security measures, account setup and payment systems. So should we really be pointing the blame at the PS3 firmware cracker and not Sony?

If you have a PSN account, what are your feelings about what has happened? Who do you blame the most?

And do you think this is the end of it? Just to prove a point... the network still isn't back up a full 12 days after the breach was first discovered... so it must be pretty bad. But at least Sony didn't just blindly keep the network running, whilst trying to patch it behind the scenes. I fully support they decision to pull the service until they can be sure it is better secured for its users.

I wonder if Xbox live or the Wii marketplace will be the next target? Live doesn't have nearly as many users as PSN, and it is a more fragmented service, with only the members account login being central, and all gaming servers run by their respective game developers. Sony controlling and channeling everything through their own PSN servers might have been a good idea, but a bad one for getting hacked.