PlayStation Network Down Update: Sony To Offer US Customers Free Identity Theft Protection

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By now, you’ve heard about the hacker’s intrusion into the PlayStation Network and the resulting two week outage that us PS3 gamers are still enduring. A lot of folks may be concerned about their credit card information being out there in the open, if outside hackers did grab it, so Sony has teamed up with identity thief firm Debix to offer one year of protection for free.

Here’s what you’ll get from Debix, according to the Official PlayStation Blog:

• Debix will monitor criminal websites and data recovered from law enforcement raids for your information. If it’s discovered, you’ll be notified.
• You’ll get a monthly “state of your identity” report from Debix.
• You’ll get priority access to Debix’ private investigators and “identity restoration specialists”, should your personal information be stolen.
• $1 million insurance policy per user, for lost wages and other monetary damages from having your identity stolen.

According to their website, Debix is currently charging $9.95, so the one year free from Sony isn’t insignificant when you consider the millions of PSN users (although I’m sure Debix cut Sony a special rate). Currently, only US customers will be getting this protection, but I guess there’s a possibility that non-Americans will be getting this as well.

American PSN users will receive an email in the future, which will have a link on how to enroll with Debix and their program. In the blog post, Sony’s Patrick Seybold reiterated that the company is working “around the clock” to restore PSN and Qriocity. Remember that those services were supposed to be turned back on this past week, but were pushed back for “further testing”.

PSN users, does this free identity thief protection make you feel better?