Update []:
Hours after going public about the hack, Sacred Symbols host Colin Moriarty confirmed that his account had been restored.
While this is good news, Moriarty admits that his status and connections played a big part in getting his account back here.
It is clear that there are processes and procedures that need to be improved so that this does not happen to others.
Original story: A prominent PS5 podcaster’s PSN account has been hacked, increasing the ongoing concern of “social engineering” that has been swirling around PlayStation fans.
Colin Moriarty, founder and creator of the Sacred Symbols podcast and former editor of IGN PlayStation, took to social media today to confirm that he has lost access to his account.
Eerily, he was warned that he was targeted just hours before his account was taken over by hackers.
Moriarty’s podcast has been contacted by several PS5 players over the last year or so, all reporting the same situation. He may have been a victim because of his subject composition.
According to the Sacred Symbols host he was not deceived and did not put his sensitive data in a place where he shouldn’t have put it. He says: “I am optimistic about this.
Moriarty reveals that he received a random text message saying that his email address had been changed and that two-factor authentication had been disabled. His compromised account was then used to contact broadcaster Dustin Furman, claiming he was “following”.
Much of this echoes a groundbreaking report published by French journalist Nicolas Lellouche last year.
After his account was compromised in the same way as Moriarty’s, he decided to do some digging and discovered that PSN accounts could be the target of a “social engineering” scheme.
Essentially, his article assumes that hackers can gain full access to your account by giving customer service representatives a small piece of information – in this example, a transaction ID.
Lellouche says he disclosed this information publicly in an article he wrote in 2023, which he believes was obtained by hackers and used as a way to access his account.
I contacted Moriarty to ask if he’s ever unwittingly shared receipts or employee IDs in the past, and he told me that he might but he wasn’t sure when.
Assuming this is the case, then I hope there are alarm bells ringing on PlayStation right now.
Obviously, customer service needs to be fast and seamless, but if strong security checks aren’t in place, then we end up in situations like this.
Moriarty’s status among PlayStation fans likely means there will be a quick resolution here, but not everyone will be so lucky.
With years of playtime and thousands of dollars of digital purchases on the line, Sony has to make sure its security is tight and that it’s keeping its customers safe.