I knew the Sony database was hacked on May 5th, but I wasn’t really aware of the extent of damage caused. Nearly 100 million subscribers’ account information was stolen. How freaking nice…sigh! Apparently, I was one of them, because I received this email today…
Hi there!
I’m writing you because your email is part of a list of emails that was released by hackers and opened to the public. Your email and your password for a Sony account is in the public. If you use that password to protect other accounts it is in your best interest to change ALL of your passwords now (probably a good idea anyways)! I’m trying to give you guys a head start! This is the link to the article http://news.consumerreports.org/electronics/2011/05/another-sony-online-database-is-hacked.html. If you have any questions feel free to email me at XXXXXXXXX@XXXXX.com. I have not and will not access any of the accounts, just trying to help you guys out.
-Dan
I removed Dan’s email due to protecting his privacy and thankful he alerted me to the situation. WOW am I ever pissed about this. This is the last thing I need right now going on in my life! Geeez! Sony needs to take all that money they are raking in and actually put some of it into protecting their freaking customers’ information! I can’t even stream Netflix through my Playstation 3 anymore, because of this bullplop! Now I have to worry about my information being leaked all over the stinking place.
Anyhow, I want to recommend everyone to read Consumer Reports “6 tips to surviving the Epsilon e-mail fiasco” when you have an extra minute. The tips are basic, but a good reminder on what to look for in protecting yourself from spam.
Did anyone else get an email like the one above? I’m curious of how many of you are on the hackers’ list too.
Oh and I almost forgot to add that the email I received from Dan looked like I sent it to myself which I believe means my email account has now been spoofed. How PRICELESS!
[ad#Google Adsense-1]
I also received an email from Dan (looks like I sent it to myself too). The next day, I received emails from Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon telling me that my email and password had been leaked and I should change my password ASAP. What ticks me off the most is that “Dan” is the one sending emails. Seems that Sony either doesn’t care about customers or is too scared to deal with them…
I got the same email too.. I wondered about how real it was since it came from my email address! Not a smart way of doing things for sure.
Oh its real alright! I just searched my email on google and it came up along with my password. Everyone needs to check to see if they are on the list and if yes… change all passwords immediately!
Hi there!
I’m the one that sent you all that email. I just wanted to take the opportunity to clear a few things up. I have received a lot of emails questioning why I sent the email seemingly from within each persons account.
The email didn’t actually come from your address. The script I wrote made it appear as if that was the case for a few reasons.
The first: I knew it would grab your attention and I figured you would be getting a lot of spam so I wanted to make sure that you read it.
The second: For some spam filters, email that is received from oneself won’t go into the spam folder. I wanted to make sure that people would see the email in the inbox.
I’m sorry if this led people to be concerned that I had some how accessed their account. This is not the case at all! I was really just trying to help people out.
For those that have any further questions they are welcome to email me at danrpopez@gmail.com and I am more than willing to answer, even if it is just guiding through password changes or questions about password security.
Thanks,
-Dan
Thank you Dan for clearing things up and offering your assistance!
Also, I’m sorry to be filling your blog but,
For those who marked that email as spam. I would HIGHLY appreciate if you were to go back and remove the spam marker. I’m working on software that will be a first response to these sort of events in the future and I don’t want my server to be blocked by spam filters!
Thanks
ugh! glad I am not on that list!