Report: PSN security testimony was speculative

The expert testimony that was widely reported last week regarding Sony's server security was apparently speculative.

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Last week's Congressional inquiry and resulting letter response was part of a hearing on the threat of data theft organized by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade. During the hearings, security expert Dr. Eugene Spafford testified that Sony's security was obsolete and lacked a firewall, a quote widely reported and discussed on Weekend Confirmed. Now a new report from Bitmob claims that Spafford's testimony was entirely speculative.

In a written statement that accompanied his testimony, Spafford noted that he was passing along unconfirmed information:

I have no information about what protections they had in place, although some news reports indicate that Sony was running software that was badly out of date and had been warned about that risk.

Meanwhile, Bitmob users are offering conflicting accounts on Sony's Apache servers. The report's writer points to a Beyond3D forums user, who claims that a Google webcache shows Sony running current version 2.2.17 as of March 23, 2011. Others in the comments counter that only some of Sony's servers were up to date, while others were running version 2.2.11.

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  • reply
    May 9, 2011 1:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Report: PSN security testimony was speculative.

    The expert testimony that was widely reported last week regarding Sony's server security was apparently speculative.

    • reply
      May 9, 2011 3:09 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      May 9, 2011 4:20 PM

      I'll just wait for the FBI report.

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      May 9, 2011 10:04 PM

      I used to hang out on B3D, those guys are serious business and knowledge there.

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      May 9, 2011 10:22 PM

      lol, you tell Congress one thing and then release a statement saying "i have no information"

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      May 10, 2011 8:35 AM

      Whatever. The damage is done, and it almost makes me feel better to believe that this WAS a matter of just being badly out of date. Otherwise, Xbox Live might be next, or WoW, or whoever else you care to imagine.

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      May 10, 2011 9:51 AM

      Well... maybe they couldnt update because they were still running original Everquest servers lolz

      all i know is that when it does come back up i better see full green bars on CoD or any other heavy bandwith related online game :)

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