Protecting Your Sony PlayStation

The Sony PlayStation hit store shelves in 1994 as Sony’s answer to the gaming consul from its rival Nintendo. It has since risen in the ranks as one of the best gaming consoles on the market. In addition to superior graphics capability, faster hard drives and greater interactivity between users and their games, the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) plays 3D games, DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs, CDs, MP3s and displays digital photos. It connects to digital devices compatible with the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), the PlayStation Portable (PSP) through a wireless internet connection and users' networks with PlayStation Home – a 3D community where users can socialize and play exclusive games. With all these incredible features, you might wonder, how vulnerable is the Sony PlayStation to malicious attacks?

Even though the PS3 has access to the internet, protecting your Sony PlayStation console is easy. Sony uses a unique operating system that can only run software designed and approved by Sony. The console also stores very little personal information that would be of interest to hackers, making writing viruses for the PS3 a virtual waste of time. Although this may change in the future, Sony’s official stance is that antivirus software is not necessary for the Sony PlayStation.

This advice seems contrary to everything we have been taught about internet security – that if you can access the internet, you need to protect your device. However, the PS3 console has remained virus-free since its release in 2006. Users interested in adding a layer of protection to their Sony PlayStations can activate the Trend Micro Web Security subscription offered through Sony. Trend Micro, Inc. is the only company to offer antivirus software for a gaming console. This software prevents malware from gaining access to the console’s hard drive and blocks access to websites that contain content that deals with sex, drugs and violence.

The greatest security feature available for the Sony PlayStation is still its operating system. The more popular and widely used an operating system becomes, the greater the benefit of writing malicious code becomes as well. With hundreds of thousands of computers and other devices using Windows-based operating systems, hackers and cyber criminals can easily access sensitive information with spyware, Trojans and worms. The Sony PlayStation console is limited to the Sony PlayStation and PlayStation Portable, therefore limiting the amount and type of information to which a hacker could potentially gain access. If the operating system becomes more popular in the future, viruses may become a real threat, but until then, the threat is minimal.

Early versions of the Sony PlayStation 3 allowed users to install other operating systems such as Linux on the unit’s hard drive. This opened the unit up to viruses written to attack Linux systems; however, few viruses target Linux. Sony has since changed the console design, and that modification is limited to the original consoles released with system software version 3.15 or earlier. Newer systems are only able to run Sony’s system software.

Unless the operating system becomes more popular in the future, the Sony PlayStation will remain one of the more secure methods for surfing the internet available. Parents can feel comfortable with the types of sites their children can access, and your Sony equipment will remain virus free.

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