The Great PlayStation Network Hack of 2011: A Complete History

Beginning in April of 2011, the PlayStation brand experienced what is undoubtedly its darkest hour. For more than three long, drawn-out weeks, Sony's PlayStation Network was offline, recovering from a catastrophic hack that exposed a staggering 77 million consumers' personal information, credit card details, addresses, and more. It's almost hard to believe it happened at all. But it did. Here's how it all played out.

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This video's thumbnail was created using an image by artist Vadim Sadovski, garnered via a licensed Shutterstock account.

Additional Shutterstock imagery used in the video comes from the following accounts (garnered via license): FrankHH, Take Photo, WHITE RABBIT83, and Zakharchuk.

Other imagery found in this episode of Side Quest was acquired from the following sources: ABC News, Amazon, Animation World Network, Business Insider, Down Today, GameTDB, Know Your Meme, Logo Download, MobyGames, Museum of Logo, PNGIMG, Reddit, Rolling Stone, Sony Rumors, Twitter, Wikimedia, and Wikipedia.

The following videos were used, in part, in the creation of this episode of Side Quest:

   • PlayStation Store Presents Bazaar  
   • Connect The World  | PlayStation™Network  
   • PS3 Play Beyond  
   • Видео  
   • PlayStation 1 Startup (Long Version)  
   • Old game commercial: Tony Hawks Pro S...  
   • Socom US Navy Seal Commercial (Online...  
   • Official Playstation 2 Linux Kit Inst...  
   • 599 US Dollars Sound Effect  
   • Xbox Live Original Promotional Video  
   • TT Throwback: Playstation Home GDC 20...  
   • SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs Launch Trailer  
   • PS3 Hacker vs. Sony  
   • +4:3 Executives apologise after data ...  
   • Kazuo Hirai: PSN Restoration Announce...  
   • Sony E3 2012 Press Conference  
   • PlayStation | Greatness Awaits  

The following is a partial list of sources used in the writing of this episode of Side Quest (YouTube's character limit stops us from sharing all 50+ sources, though we've done our best to represent all outlets):

https://www.sie.com/content/dam/corpo...
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/28...
https://qz.com/1480809/the-biggest-da...
http://fortune.com/2014/12/24/why-son...
https://money.cnn.com/2000/10/24/bizb...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08...
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05...
https://www.cnet.com/news/why-the-wii...
https://www.geekwire.com/2013/npd-xbo...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
https://kotaku.com/ps3-error-8001050f...
https://www.technologizer.com/2010/03...
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/...
https://www.mercurynews.com/2011/04/2...
https://www.pcworld.com/article/22594...
https://ps3movies.ign.com/ps3/documen...
https://www.ign.com/articles/2011/04/...
https://www.theguardian.com/technolog...
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...
https://www.computerworld.com/article...
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/23...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...
https://www.zdnet.com/article/sony-se...
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-son...