As security concerns remain, Japan refuses to restore Sony PSN

By Andrew Couts May 16, 2011

Sony has now restored its PlayStation Network for most users around the world — but not in the company’s home country, Japan. Due to lingering security concerns, the Japanese government has so far refused to allow Sony to turn the PSN back on, reports Dow Jones.

Kazushige Nobutani, an official with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said that the Japanese government was still waiting for Sony to provide addition details about the series of breaches, the first of which occurred on April 19 and resulted in the shutdown of the network on April 20. In total, the two attacks on Sony’s network left roughly 100 million users around the world at risk of identity theft.

“We met with Sony on May 6 and 13, and basically we want two things from them,” Nobutani said in a statement. “The first is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference.” The second pertained to Sony’s plan to convince users that it is now safe to provide credit card and other payment details to the company.

Restoration of the PlayStation Network and Sony’s Qirocity service, both of which were affected by the breach, began late Saturday evening for users in the US and Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. All PlayStation 3 users in those countries or regions must download the v3.61 update and change their passwords in order to reconnect to the PSN.

Sony has also faced government scrutiny in the US, with members of Congress demanding answers to a long list of questions about the massive breaches — possibly the largest in US history — and the resulting data theft. In addition, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has issued subpoenas to Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Online Entertainment about the attacks.

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