Worries surround PSN card security

Six days on and we’re still none the wiser as to the nature of the "external intrusion" that has lead to the collapse of PSN – and customers are starting to get worried.

At the first the concern was one of inconvenience. Easter is a busy weekend for many gamers and the inability to play online or purchase PSN content will have hit some hard.

But now thoughts are turning to larger worries. Specifically, Sony’s refusal to address the issue of online security and assure customers that the personal and bank details have not been compromised.

"I know you are waiting for additional information on when PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be online," a statement on the EU PlayStation blog read.

"Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time. As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we’re working to get them back online quickly. Will keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience."

Returning to the cause of the outage, Venturebeat speculates that a recently released custom firmware for PS3 allowed users to acquire content from PSN with invalid credit card details, effectively pirating the content.

If true that would certainly be a major problem for Sony, but one worthy of depriving its user base of almost a week’s worth of access? That’s questionable.

And hopes of a quick resolution appear to have been dashed, with news from VG247 that Sony has issued a warning to developers stating:

PSN emergency maintenance. Please note that PlayStation Network is currently down for an emergency maintenance. Please hold while the issues are resolved. You will be unable to sign in until the maintenance is resolved. Apologies for the trouble.”