Yesterday, Sony said it expects to have the PlayStation Network "fully" restored by the end of the month. However, the company is scrambling to get some functionality back online as soon as possible, and today, it offered a brief update on its progress.

　　The PSN won't have basic functionality until later this week…at the earliest.

　　"I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored," said Sony Computer Entertainment America's senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold on the PlayStation Blog. "At this time, I can't give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process."

　　Last Thursday, Sony announced it was performing "final testing" before the system went back online. However, late Friday, the company announced that restoration of the PSN had been indefinitely delayed due to "comprehensive system checks" and security verification.

　　Today's announcement comes nearly three weeks after the PSN first went offline on the evening of April 20. The following Tuesday, the company confirmed there had been a data breach, but it said some PSN services would be up within a week. Then, on April 30, the company announced it would give PSN users free content to make up for the outage and promised the network would be back online within the following week.

　　Last Wednesday, the company submitted a detailed timeline of the attack to the US Congress--the day before a cybersecurity expert claimed Sony knew the PSN's security software was outdated. The day after, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer offered an apology for the prolonged delay, and the company unveiled a free identity-theft protection program with $1 million worth of insurance for each customer.