Sony suspends 93,000 accounts following unauthorised sign-in attempts
13 Oct 2011
Japanese electronics giant Sony, hit by a number of cyber hacks, yesterday said it had suspended 93,000 accounts on its online entertainment networks following a large number of unauthorised sign-in attempts.
This comes after a massive breach forced Sony to shut some services since May, that led to it being forced to suspend its populat PlayStation over identity thefts (See: Sony Ericsson eShop website attack affects 2,000 users).
The attempts that occurred between 7 October and 10 October succeeded in verifying valid sign-in IDs and passwords of about 93,000 accounts on its PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment services.
The company said credit card details linked to the accounts were not at risk from the access attempts.
According to Sony the breaches appeared to include a huge amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or sources. The company further said, ''these were unauthorised attempts to verify valid user accounts on our services using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords."
The accounts have been temporarily been locked by the entertainment giant, which is continuing investigations into the extent of unauthorised activity.