PSN Debacle - Hackers shift focus

PSN Debacle - Hackers shift focus

What happened to the Playstation Network hasn't exactly been flying under the radar. As it turns out, PSN might just as well have been the first success hackers have had after their shift in focus. 

Here's the deal, most services that require you to give information regarding your monetary properties, like banking services, need a two-stage authentication. This is making things rather difficult for hackers. Think of it like if the USS Enterprise had two sets of shields. It's not impossible to get past, but it sure makes things a whole hell of a lot more difficult. Because of this, hackers have been targeting social networking services more and more. 

Senior lecturer in computing at the Open University and an expert in data protection, Blaine Price, said that these social networking services have to deal with two things in their programming. These are security and accessibility. 

"It would be a real pain if every time you want to start up a game you had to scan your thumb, type in 15 digits and pull out a card reader," he added. "[But] any time you're just using a user ID and password, it's going to be a risk."

Much like the BBC gameshow, someone has to be the weakest link. And this is who hackers target. According to David Emm,  a senior security researcher for Kaspersky Labs, hackers usually only need to find out one password for individuals, as they often times use the same password for multiple services. Making the individual the weakest link to target. 

"The weakest link is always the individual," he said. "Clearly, trying to undermine a bank's security is a lot of effort. Whereas if you go after an individual, it's not going to be noticed, it's going to be easier to do."

Imagine playing World of Warcraft. Constantly you will see people in the chat saying that they are or have been recently hacked. Reason because of this is because they only need a single password and username. WoW is definitely not the most secured game in the world, and things get swiped all the time. Now imagine that PSN is using the same system as WoW. Unfortunately, it isn't just imagination. It's reality.

So all in all, it isn't entirely Sony's fault, per se, that PSN got hacked. Sure, they could have done more, like instigate a two-stage authentication, but that would mean they would hinder their customers. Not one service like PSN is using a two-stage system because that would mean losing existing, but most importantly, potential customers to services that don't.

Source 
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109628-PSN-Attack-Shows-New-Focus-for-Hackers-Say-Security-Experts