Sony confirm credit card information was stolen

Sony have confirmed yesterday that the hack into their PlayStation Network is worse than first expected, saying that the intruder has gotten away with credit and debit card information.

The hacker has broken deeply into the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) network as well as the Playstation Network and the Qriocity streaming music service, according to the electronics giant.

They said in an update “We had previously believed that Sony Online Entertainment customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company. But, on May 1 we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen and we are notifying you as soon as possible.”

The engineers and security consultants investigating the hack have discovered evidence that the information was stolen from 24.6 million SOE accounts and from an outdated database containing people's financial data. It looks as if 12,700 credit card and debit card numbers have been taken from people in the USA as well as 10,700 card numbers of people in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain. “We will be notifying each of these customers promptly”, they said. It is important for Sony to be seen to be acting quickly now, especially after the first week of downtime in which they were slow to react with their customers.

“There is no evidence that our main credit card database was compromised,” SOE said in an update to users. “It is in a completely separate and secured environment.” Whatever that means. Why would they have two separate databases for credit cards, with one in an unsecured environment?

Kazuo Hirai, executive deputy president and other executives have issued apologies to the public, even bowing in apology during a press conference relating to the high profile security hack. “This criminal act against our network had a significant impact not only on our consumers, but our entire industry,” he said. “These illegal attacks obviously highlight the widespread problem with cyber security. We take the security of our consumers' information very seriously and are committed to helping our consumers protect their personal data.”

Sony are working out a deal to offer customers freebies and they have said that their network will get a total security overhaul with new procedures in place to ensure this doesn't happen again.

KitGuru says: Is it too late to repair the damage?

Become a Patron!