The Rapture maybe prophesied for May 21, but this weekend, PSN users accustomed to tribulation were finally swept back up into their own eagerly-awaited utopia. Lobbies for multiplayer titles like Killzone 3 filled as Sony's PlayStation Network returned to service, with North American players brought online and residents of the Etcetera Nations (Europe, Australasia, the Middle East, So Forth) gradually eased back into the fold (with the exception ofJapan). And then it went down again.
While the return includes a mandatory system update to tighten security – requiring users to reset passwords before returning online – heavy traffic saw many European and US users experiencing outages before Sonyasked usersvia Twitter to bear with further downtime, this time for maintenance. Sony's Steve Reynolds reassured anguished Twitter users that these rolling outages werethe result of overeagernesson their own part; within the half-hour, he would be reporting the network's restored... restoration.
Sony hasposted avideo of Kazuo Hirai's announcement regarding the relaunch, in which a contrite Hirai emphasizes that no corners have been cut in strengthening security and tightening consumer protection before the returning the network to service. Meanwhile,investigations into the breachhave led to an Amazon Web Services account registered under an alias. This account was used to rent a server from which the attack was launched. Amazon will likely be subpoenaed by the FBI for details on the account, which has since been shut down.
May 16, 2011
