Sony’s internet crisis worsens with new breach
03 May 2011
Sony's internet security crisis worsened yesterday as the company revealed hackers had stolen data of another 25 million users of its PC games system in a second massive breach at the consumer electronics giant.
The latest breach comes even as Sony No 2 Kazuo Hirai announced measures had been put in place to avert another cyberattack like that the one which hit its PlayStation Network.
Monday's disclosure of another attack related to one that occurred before a massive break-in of a separate video game network that led to the theft of 77 million users' accounts. The company revealed the initial attack last week.
According to the Japanese electronics company the break in at its Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) PC games network was discovered on 2 May. The breach also led to the theft of 10,700 direct debit records of customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain and 12,700 non-US credit or debit card numbers, according to Sony.
The PlayStation network allows downloading of games by console owners which allows them to play against friends. Sony Online Entertainment which was the target of the latest break-in, hosts games played over the internet on PCs.
According to Sony, the names, addresses, emails, birth dates phone numbers and other information from 24.6 million PC games customers was stolen from its servers as also an "outdated database" from 2007.
