High-Profile PlayStation Podcaster Hacked, Sparking Account Security Worries
Colin Moriarty, host of the Sacred Symbols podcast, recently faced a troubling situation. He received a warning that read, “Colin, I’m just warning you. They have your information and they are going to try to take your account today.” Shortly after, the former IGN editor and Kinda Funny Games co-founder found his PlayStation account hacked, locking him out of a vast library of digital games and a history built over many years. Although Sony managed to restore his access quickly, the incident has sparked renewed concerns about the security of PlayStation accounts.
On May 18, Moriarty shared on X that his PSN account had been compromised as part of a broader, sophisticated attack targeting both random and notable users. He noted that despite having two-factor authentication enabled, his account was still breached. The hacker even sent a threatening message to his fellow Sacred Symbols podcaster, Dustin Furman, stating, “You’re next.”
Initially, a PlayStation Support representative informed Moriarty that it could take up to three weeks to regain access to his account. However, he leveraged his connections within Sony and its first-party studios to escalate the matter. After regaining access, he acknowledged on X, “I fully know I exercised advantages due only and exclusively to my stature in the PlayStation community and my many tethers to the mothership. These are absolutely not privileges many other people have. I simply must acknowledge that.”
Sony has not commented on the situation.
Moriarty’s experience is not isolated. Over the years, there have been multiple reports of PlayStation users losing access to their accounts. For instance, last year, Nicolas Lellouche, a writer for a French tech site, woke up to a message from Sony indicating that his account information had changed. Soon after, unauthorized purchases began appearing on his linked PayPal account. Although he managed to regain access, his account was stolen again. Lellouche speculated that hackers might have used bits of personal information to convince Sony’s customer support to lock users out of their accounts.
He pointed out a significant issue: customer service has a tool that allows them to reset an email even if it’s protected by a password or passkey. “They just need to trust you, but an old transaction ID in a mailbox is enough for them to know it’s you. So hackers use that to change the ID of a lot of accounts and sell them,” he explained on X. It remains unclear whether Sony has addressed this apparent vulnerability or if the hacker who targeted Moriarty’s account employed a different method. Previously, a former PlayStation trophy record holder accused hackers of bribing PlayStation support staff to assist in stealing high-profile accounts.
As Lellouche highlights, any easily exploitable security flaw is a serious concern, especially as the PlayStation ecosystem has largely transitioned away from physical games. Losing your account can mean losing access to hundreds or even thousands of dollars in purchases. Moriarty expressed his commitment to raising awareness about this issue, stating, “Rest assured I am already bending (and will continue to bend) the ears of who I can to hopefully help convince the powers-that-be that this is a real issue they have to contend with.”
