The PlayStation Network Data Breach Is Still A Bummer, But It's Not Looking Half As Bad This Morning.

Furthermore, the platform holder has reiterated that there is "no evidence" any credit card information was taken at all. While Sony still refuses to rule out the possibility, it's sounding very unlikely at this point.

Essentially this latest update puts a big dampener on the anecdotal, scaremongering headlines that were popping up around the Internet all day yesterday. In short: it's sounding very, very unlikely that any credit card theft will come of this. Obviously Sony's recommending users' stay vigilant and check their statements, but realistically you should be doing that anyway.

Sony added that personal data was not encrypted on the database, but if you take issue with that then you're probably never going to use a website again. As we understand it, it's far too inefficient to be encrypting every set of data, particularly on a network with 75 millions rows of information. It's also worth noting that Sony had the credit card data stored in a separate place to the personal data, further limiting the chances of any credit card fraud.

So things really aren't as bad as they first seemed. The storm is blowing over, and while people have a right to stay angry, it's worth emphasising that the reality of this breach is nowhere near as catastrophic as it seemed yesterday. Certainly a lot of "incompetence" arguments will need to be ripped up and thrown on the fire.

What happens when the PlayStation Network eventually goes back online, then? Sony's confirmed that it's working on a new system software update that will allow users to change their password (and presumably security question / answer) when the network is back online. We've no idea how that will work, but Sony's promising more details on that soon.

The platform holder's still citing that services will resume within a week. What's interesting is that it sounds like Sony are moving their network to an entirely new physical location, hinting that last week's "external intrusion" might have been in person. That's all speculation at this point in time though.

What's important is that Sony has cleared up concerns of its existing security measures, and is implementing further precautions on top. It's also worth adding that, aside from some poor communication, Sony has handled this situation efficiently and professionally. While it doesn't make the scenario acceptable by any measure, pulling down the network so quickly to restrict any further threat was clearly a bold but necessary action.

We're just hoping things can move on a bit now that the situation has been blown open. Hopefully this makes us all more aware of where we're storing our personal data, and puts a rocket up the company's responsible for protecting it. Sony will still have to do a lot of work to assure customers that their data is safe in the future, but at least the sky is looking blue this morning rather than yesterday's stormy shade of grey.