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These nerds are seriously bored. Over the weekend PlayStation 4 owners are saying a text-message based hack is bricking their consoles forcing them to do a factory reset. 

Sony has yet to confirm or comment on the hack, but many have stated that they were victims. Gamers have taken to a PS4 subreddit claiming they were hit and are describing the same effects. The hack stems from a message that contains a string of characters that literally shuts down their consoles.

If you are worried about the hack and you should be, there is a way to combat it. You could either manage your messaging preferences from a web browser or check incoming messages via the PlayStation iOS or Android app which is considered the best way to be safe. You can also just handle it via your console by going into the Account Management tab, then the Privacy Settings tab. You either can switch your messaging preferences to either only friends or just turn them off completely.

As for possibly how it all started, a user stated atop the subreddit threat used the attack against everyone on his team except for one person who happened to have his messaging on private. So basically this sounds like it stemmed from a disgruntled gamer who can’t handle losses very well.

Regardless we hope Sony is indeed paying attention to this and working on some sort of patch to combat this hack because it is very worrisome.