PSN restoration begins

Sony’s PlayStation Network is on the road to recovery after hackers compromised it, causing a nearly month-long outage.

Late last night, Sony announced network restoration would be phased in, beginning with North America and continuing on a country-by-country basis through Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

According to the statement released, the first phase of restored services will include sign-in for PSN and Qriocity services, including a mandatory resetting of passwords; restoration of online gameplay across PlayStation 3 and PSP devices, among others. (See full list and official statement here).

Sony is implementing a number of security measures in light of this attack, including a firmware upgrade, additional software monitoring and vulnerability testing as well as increased levels of data encryption.Executive deputy president Kazuo Hirai appeared in a video yesterday to apologise and explain the restoration and new security measures.

"I can’t thank you enough for your patience and support during this time. We know even the most loyal customers have been frustrated by this process and are anxious to use their Sony products and services again,” said Hirai.

"We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full time, company-wide commitment.”