2011 PlayStation Network outage

The 2011 PlayStation Network outage was the result of an "external intrusion" on Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, in which personal details from approximately 77 million accounts were compromised and prevented users of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles from accessing the service. The attack occurred between April 17 and April 19, 2011, forcing Sony to turn off the PlayStation Network on April 20. On May 4 Sony confirmed that personally identifiable information from each of the 77 million accounts had been exposed. The outage lasted 23 days.

At the time of the outage, with a count of 77 million registered PlayStation Network accounts, it was one of the largest data security breaches in history. It surpassed the 2007 TJX hack which affected 45 million customers. Government officials in various countries voiced concern over the theft and Sony's one-week delay before warning its users.

Sony stated on April 26 that it was attempting to get online services running "within a week." On May 14, Sony released PlayStation 3 firmware version 3.61 as a security patch. The firmware required users to change their password upon signing in. At the time the firmware was released, the network was still offline. Regional restoration was announced by Kazuo Hirai in a video from Sony. A map of regional restoration and the network within the United States was shared as the service was coming back online.

On April 20, 2011, Sony acknowledged that on the official PlayStation Blog that it was "aware certain functions of the PlayStation Network" were down. Upon attempting to sign in via the PlayStation 3, users received a message indicating that the network was "undergoing maintenance". The following day, Sony asked its customers for patience while the cause of outage was investigated and stated that it may take "a full day or two" to get the service fully functional again.

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