New terms added to Sony’s PlayStation Network online gaming network could ban users from connecting to the service unless they agree to accept new clauses that protects the Japanese electronics giant from class action lawsuits brought as a result of a security breach. The BBC reportsthat the new terms are now live for all PlayStation users and will be displayed next time they log in to the service, a move that has seen Sony increase protection and safeguard itself from online attacks that were brought against it by online collectives LulzSec and Anonymous....

Sonyhas saidit will start to restore parts of its PlayStation Network in Asia, including Japan, on Saturday, beginning a process that has taken over a month to initiate since the platform was taken offline as a result of amassive security breachthat affected millions of users across the world. With restoration of such services already underway in a number of different regions, users within Asia were last to see online functionality return to their PlayStation consoles....

Sony is working on a redesign of its PlayStation Network’s look and feel, in what appears to be a bid to refresh the brand afterhackers stole the personal data of over 100 million users, negatively affecting consumer trust in the brand. VentureBeat reportsthat the new look will be similar to that of competitor Xbox Live, with less text and larger images, probably offering a take on the “tiled” look that has become a favorite of Microsoft designers of late....

Sony Online Entertainmentwas taken offline today as the company admitted that theattackerswhostole customer informationfrom the PlayStation Network may have also stolen customer data from the Online Entertainment service. Sony Online Entertainment is best known for publishing massively multiplayer online games. Their library isn’t a small one: it includes MMO giants such asEverQuest, EverQuest II, The Matrix Online, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies,Free Realms, andDC Universe Online. The site is still down at the time of this writing....

Sony’s Patrick Seybold has posted an update on the official Playstation Blogrevealingadditional details about thehacking of the Playstation Networkand the subsequent theft of user information. According to Seybold, Sony did in fact encrypt customers credit card numbers, something that many of the affected users had been most concerned with. Although the credit card numbers were stored in an encrypted table and Sony has no evidence at this time that the data was even taken, Sony is still urging caution, stating that they cannot rule out the possibility....