Sony Pulled PlayStation Network Over Rampant Piracy?

A new explanation for the ongoing Sony PlayStation Network downtime has been suggested, with claims that Sony has taken the service offline so as to close a loophole that had been responsible for "extreme piracy of PSN content." PSX-Scene's "Chesh" took to Reddit to outline how a new PlayStation 3 custom firmware called Rebug was used by hackers to gain access to the PSN's developer networks. From there, it was possible to input fake credit card information and buy content without ever paying for it.

The security glitch, it's suggested, is because Sony was not validating credit card information since the users were on its trusted private developer network. Sony allegedly responded by pulling the plug on the network completely; the "additional security" Sony representatives have admitted is being installed is apparently to combat this sort of hacking.

Chesh admits that the explanation is speculation pieced together from information throughout the PlayStation hacking community, however sources with access to the SCE devnet servers have apparently confirmed that Sony is telling developers that, moving forward, only 3.60+ debug firmware will be allowed onto the network. If developers want to retain their access then they not only need to upgrade, it's claimed, but contact Sony too.

Rebug's developers are not responsible for the credit card hack, though whether Sony will look kindly on them anyway remains to be seen. However, user credit card information is believed to be secure still.

[via TorrentFreak]