In the past two months, several people I personally know have had their PlayStation accounts hacked. All have gotten control of them again, but only after varying degrees of time spent either online or on the phone with Sony support. One person lost control of his account and, weeks later, after he’d gotten control of it again, he was again hacked, and this time his account was banned.
After some further time with support, he was able to regain control of the account, but it brought up some worrying thoughts.
If you lose your PlayStation account, you can simply create a new one, but that’s far from ideal. In doing so, you lose your trophies and friends list, but you also lose all the digital games you’ve purchased (which includes DLC for disc-based games).
Last year, PlayStation finally implemented two-step verification, and I can’t encourage you enough to set up this protection. Basically, each time you sign in on a new device, you will be sent a code to your phone, and you will need to enter that code before you will be signed in. You only have to do this for the first time on each device, not each time you boot up (unless for some reason you had your system configured as such).
As soon as the first person I knew got hacked, I immediately set this up. It doesn’t take long, and it’s not a hassle in the least. I think a lot of us don’t necessarily think about our online gaming security until it has been compromised or, in this case, someone we know has been compromised.
I’d encourage everyone to set up two-step verification on any account possible. Xbox Live has had this service for quite some time now; Steam has as well. The only major player that hasn’t offered this yet is Nintendo.
Another level of security would be to change your passwords periodically. Using unique passwords for various online accounts is preferable, and many encourage you to use non-traditional words (words you wouldn’t necessarily find in the dictionary) and number combinations to increase password strength. Various inclusions of caps and symbols is also recommended.
I know this is a bit of a boring reminder, but I’d hate to see anyone out there lose access to any of their online gaming accounts, as well as their digital purchases. My friend whose account was recently hacked was also banned for security reasons. That means the person who was trying to gain access to it wouldn’t have been able to use it either; it would have been a waste all around. Please protect yourselves and take the five minutes to set this up. It’s easy, free, and invaluable.
Have you ever been hacked? If so, did you have a relatively easy time regaining your account? Or was it a frustrating process? Do you already have two-step verification set up on your online gaming accounts? If not, do you plan to?
As much as I love gaming online, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that security is an issue. Let’s all do what we can to stay safe.
Cheers, friends.
Categories: games
Rebekah Lang 
i went through the same situation, myself. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I should say, I knew who it was that did it. Just remember to never let anyone know your password, even if it is someone that you feel is trustworthy. You never know if or when a point might come that you find that they are not.
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Ugh, really? And you KNEW who did it? That makes you the first person I know who KNEW who hacked them. I’m so sorry; what a crummy thing to do. :(
Did you at least get your account back? I hope so!
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I wonder who you could possibly be referring to? :-)
I’ve got everything back the way it should be now – set up 2 step verification yesterday, so hopefully I’ve seen the last of this issue.
You can’t keep the Platinum Man down!
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You think this song is about youuu, don’t youuu, don’t youuu…
You were the second person I knew who was hacked, but the first who was also banned. It is shocking to me how widespread this seems to be. I’m super glad you now have two-step set up. I also hope you’ve seen the last of this issue! I think this is one of those things we all sort of take for granted until it’s been compromised and then we are like, NOOOOOOOOO.
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I haven’t had my account hacked but I don’t know if I have the two step verification activated.
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Oh my gosh, please set it up today. I’ve known too many people who have been hacked recently.
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I certainly will.
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:)
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I never got hacked, but just added to my account! I wanted to do this earlier, but I’m lazy. The only downside from the sony 2-step verification is that is through sms and not through an app like on Xbox or Steam…I really like that. I hope they create some sort of an app soon.
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I’m glad you added it to your account! I always meant to do it, too, but then when my friend spent a whole bunch of time and effort to get his account back, I set it up immediately.
I think text is the far safer option as the app is through your account, so if someone hacked it, they would also be able to access the app on your account, too.
That being said, I really like the PlayStation app. I use it for messaging people on my friends list all the time. It’s so much easier!
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I agree 100% with your blog. Never had a problem with PSN; I had an issue trying to reset my Yahoo account. What a pain! Still working thru Horizon; planning to pick up Andromeda this weekend.
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I’m glad for that, but do you have two-step set up? If not, please do so! You just never know.
Have fun with both games!
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I haven’t been hacked but the horror stories are…horrifying. Losing my Xbox account would be devastating. I’ve always remembered the stories about the Playstation share feature wherein other players would delete save data and otherwise wreck the accounts of the person who invited the person into their game.
Not hacking but the Xbox connectivity problems on the day that Mass Effect Andromeda launched was not fun. I pay for Xbox Live and the games that I play, not having access in the 1-2 hours available to me to play is so infuriating much less for it to happen on a anticipated release day.
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Do you have two-step set up? If not, please please please do so and protect your account!
Oh my gosh, those stories were awful. The Destiny one in particular comes to mind. :(
I was reading about those issues as they happened and I can only imagine how many people were so frustrated. Not to mention if it wouldn’t let you sign in, you couldn’t play any downloadable titles either which is absurd. Microsoft needs to fix that.
Hopefully you have been able to start Mass Effect after all that nonsense?
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I haven’t been hacked thankfully. Concern for that is why I don’t attach credit cards to my online gaming accounts and prefer to use prepaid cards. It’s helpful for easing my worry about that as well as keeps my digital purchases in check. I wonder if this is from the PSN hack a few years back?
I’m pretty sure I have the two step verification activated but next time I’m on my consoles I’ll definitely double check.
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I’m glad you haven’t been hacked and yes, please do verify that you have two-step set up. I would hate for you to lose access to your account/s.
I wouldn’t doubt it. The PSN attack back in…2012 (?) was a strange situation. Imagine what would happen now if PSN was down for over a month? People would lose it.
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Done and done. Thank you.
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Hooray for security! And of course!
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