Destroy, rebuild, repopulate.

​If you've been trying to sign on to PSN these past few days, you've probably noticed it's been about as likely as Kratos growing hair or joining an anger management group.

 

In short, PSN fell under attack and, as a result, gamers have spent the past six days without access to the Store, online play, or their precious, precious Netflix. Even worse, Sony's not sure if hackers have compromised users' personal information or credit card numbers.

 

There's still no word when PlayStation 3 gamers can expect to be back up and running online.

 

On April 22, the first real word about the situation surfaced via a post from Patrick Seybold on the PlayStation Blog. According to the post: "an external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20."

 

Seybold promised everyone was doing their best to resolve the situation quickly, a feat originally expected to take just a couple days.

 

On April 23, Seybold returned to the blog to inform concerned gamers the process, while receiving everyone's full attention, would take longer than expected.

 

"Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure," Seybold said. "Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."

 

We took this to mean the implementation of a Tron program but, really, we're just guessing.

 

As of yesterday, April 25, Seybold once again returned to the PlayStation Blog to give everyone the latest details, not that they were particularly helpful.

 

"Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time," Seybold said. "We'll keep you updated with information as it becomes available. We once again thank you for your patience."

Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo, told PCWorld yesterday that Sony "has not yet determined if the personal information or credit card numbers of users have been compromised, but that Sony would promptly inform users if it found that was the case."

 

Not only can PS3 users not play Portal 2's co-op, kick butt online in Mortal Kombat, or watch Netflix. They also have to worry about credit card fraud and password theft. If you've ever ordered anything through PlayStation Network with a credit or debit card, you might want to keep a close eye on every charge that comes through your account. 

 

In the meantime, and considering today is the day the PlayStation Store usually updates, you should probably stay tuned to the PlayStation Blog for info straight from the horse's mouth as soon as it becomes available.