Even as Sony says they are trying to secure the console-based Playstation Network from further cyber attacks, a online security expert said he has found flaws in some of Sony's other online systems. Reuters reports that John Bumgarner, the chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, claims to have found issues in servers on web sites run by Sony with relative ease.
Bumgarner says he found a number of flaws in Sony's security system using only "a web browser, Google's search engine and a basic understanding of Internet security systems.". Bumgarner did say that the issues he discovered were visible just on the Internet. He did not try to hack into Sony's password-protected servers. Some of the flaws he discovered were found on the SonyStyle.com online store web site. Another flaw exposed "the names, Facebook IDs and IP addresses of Sony customers who were playing online games through Facebook." Sony has since fixed some of the issues discovered by Bumgarner after being alerted to them by Reuters.
Meanwhile the Playstation Network is still out of service since Sony shut down the servers on April 20 after a cyber attack that exposed the personal info of tens of millions of Playstation Network owners. The effects of the shut down are beginning to affect Playstation 3 owners. According to Edge, there has been a 200 percent increase of trade ins of PS3 consoles in the UK during the second week of the Playstation Network outage. Half of the trade ins are taking cash while the other half are getting an Xbox 360 console.
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