PS4 hacked: Russian crack used by Brazil retailers to break console security and sell pirated games

Russian crackers have reportedly found a way to circumvent Sony's PS4 security, leading to Brazilian merchants offering consumers the opportunity to have their console hacked and 10 games installed onto it for $100 to $150 and $15 for each additional game.

According to GameZone, the process has been verified by Brazilian game website UOL Jogos, whose writers had the crack performed in Sao Paulo. The retailer who did it promised that Sony would be unable to tell that the games they were playing had been pirated. The hack reportedly originated from a Russian website.

Gavin Reid, the vice president of threat intelligence at Lancope, an American company which analyses security and network performance said of the hack: "Vendors in this space face aggressive targeting by communities wishing to remove copy protection. The PS4 will be no different and Sony will continue to play an arms race against groups that benefit from the abilities to copy and share games. This has happened historically with all of the major consoles. It would be highly unlikely not to continue with the PS4."

TK Keanini, chief technology officer at Lancope added: "As a PS4 and Xbox gamer, I would also like to add that the integrity of the game is not only a matter of piracy but a matter of game play. Game developers must develop advanced methods of checking the integrity of the game at runtime as a certain percentage of gamers hack the game so that they can have an unfair advantage in competition."

Sony are sending out cease and desist notices to the shops in Brazil attempting to hack the consoles for consumers. In a statement a Sony spokesperson said: "Not limited to this case, SCE [Sony Computer Entertainment] continually collaborates with organisations from US/Europe/Asia to take preventive actions against unauthorised/malicious copying of PlayStation software in individual regions."