Official PS3 Website Infects Visitors With Malware

by Dan Landis on July 4, 2008 at 1:00 am

Anti-Virus software maker Sophos warns that visiting pages on the official U.S. PlayStation website may result in some fresh spyware and viruses for your computer. Right now is apparently just not a very good time to be Sony.

According to the SophosLabs report, “cybercriminals” inserted malicious code into certain pages on Sony’s site, specifically those based on God of War and SingStar. Upon visiting the pages, a fake virus detection threat would appear and advise the user to download a cleaning tool.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, stated the following:

“There are millions of video game lovers around the world, many of whom will visit Sony’s PlayStation website regularly to find out more about the latest console games. Most would never expect that surfing to a website like this could potentially infect them with malware. If users do not have sufficient protection in place then they might find that before they know it they have been scared into handing their credit card details over to a bunch of cybercriminals.”

Sounds to me like he’s trying to peddle his product. Anyways, Sophos warns that this type of situation should be a warning to users to always make sure they are protected. Hackers with the skill required to infiltrate Sony’s site could easily place code with more malicious intent than simply duping you out of some cash.

Sophos has contacted Sony, and as of this writing, the site is still infected. Now we know what Bill Gates has been doing in his spare time since he retired.

Source: Sophos

UPDATE: The SophosLabs blog claims the site is now clean. The question now remains of how bad the situation was and how many people it affected. Then, of course, you have the Sony-sided conspiracy theorists that claim this threat never existed in the first place. Show us some proof, Sophos!

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