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Sacred Symbols<\/em> podcast host<\/a> Colin Moriarty recently received a bizarre warning. \u201cColin, I\u2019m just warning you,\u201d it read. \u201cThey have your information and they are going to try to take your account today.\u201d Sure enough, the ex-IGN<\/em> editor and Kinda Funny Games cofounder\u2019s PlayStation account was hacked shortly after, and he was locked out of a library of hundreds of digital games and an account history built up over decades. While Sony was able to restore access in record time, the high-profile incident has raised fresh concerns about vulnerabilities in PlayStation\u2019s account security<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy PSN account was hacked, seemingly as part of an ongoing sophisticated series of moves against both random and \u2018prominent\u2019 users,\u201d Moriarty posted on X<\/a> on May 18. He said his account was compromised despite two-factor authentication protection and that it was immediately used to threaten his fellow Sacred Symbols<\/em> podcaster, Dustin Furman, with a message sent over PSN that read, \u201cYou\u2019re next.\u201d<\/p>\n While a representative of PlayStation Support initially told Moriarty that it could take up to three weeks to get access to his account back, he was able to reach out to existing contacts within Sony and its first-party game studios to escalate the issue. \u201cI fully know<\/span> I exercised advantages due only and exclusively to my stature in the PlayStation community and my many tethers to the mothership,\u201d he posted on X<\/a> after getting his account back. \u201cThese are absolutely not privileges many other people have. I simply must acknowledge that.\u201d<\/p>\n Sony did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Moriarty\u2019s experience isn\u2019t a one-off<\/a>. There have been other reports over the years of PlayStation users losing access to their accounts<\/a>. Last year it happened to a writer at the French tech website Numerama<\/em> named <\/a>Nicolas Lellouche<\/a>. He woke up to a message from Sony saying that his account information had changed. Then rogue purchases on his linked PayPal account began rolling in. Lellouche was able to regain access to his account only for it to be stolen again. He theorized that hackers were able to use limited pieces of personal information to convince Sony\u2019s customer support to lock owners out of their accounts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe main problem: the customer service has a tool to reset a mail even if it\u2019s protected by a password or a passkey,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cThey just need to trust you, but an old transaction ID in a mailbox is enough for them to know it\u2019s you. So hackers use that to change the ID of a lot of accounts and sell them.\u201d It\u2019s unclear if Sony has fixed this apparent loophole<\/a> or if the hacker who targeted Moriarty\u2019s account used a different method of gaining access. A past PlayStation trophy record holder previously accused hackers of bribing PlayStation support staff to aid in stealing high-profile accounts.<\/p>\n As Lellouche points out, any easy-to-exploit security vulnerability is a major concern, especially at a time when the PlayStation ecosystem has moved almost entirely away from physical games. Having your account stolen can mean losing access to hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of purchases. \u201cRest assured I am already bending (and will continue to bend) the ears of who I can to hopefully help convince the powers-that-be that this is a real issue they have to contend with,\u201d Moriarty wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n