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PlayStation Network attacked "every day" - Yoshida

SCE's president of worldwide studios says that his company is playing a "cat and mouse" game at all times with hackers

Ever since the massive PlayStation Network breach in 2011, Sony's platform has been a prime example of how serious the industry's hacking problem has become. While Sony and many other companies have tried their hardest to firm up their respective network infrastructures, hacking attempts continue, some being more successful than others. In fact, just this past Christmas, both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live were forced offline by Lizard Squad. If you ask Sony Computer Entertainment worldwide studio boss Shuhei Yoshida, attempts to harm gaming networks occur even more frequently than you might think.

"We are always always working against these attacks. Actually, an attack happens every day. Literally every day," he disclosed to GameInformer magazine.

"Some days are bigger and some days smaller. Some days they devise new means, new ways - it's like cat and mouse. We have a partner company we work with, and we always update the new ways the attacker might deploy, so it is a constant battle."

While Sony and Microsoft may be rivals in the console war, both companies recognize a common enemy when they see one, and if Xbox Live goes down that's not good for the industry as a whole, Sony included. To that end, Microsoft's Xbox head Phil Spencer said that he does talk to the other companies about how to combat hacking.

"I don't think it's great when PSN goes down," Spencer said. "It doesn't help me. All it does is put the fear and distrust from any gamer that's out there, so I look at all of us together as this is our collective opportunity to share what we can about what we're learning and how things are growing. Those conversations happen, which I think is great."

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James Brightman avatar

James Brightman

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James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously EIC and co-founder of IndustryGamers and spent several years leading GameDaily Biz at AOL prior to that.