SONY WAS facing a backlash from users of its online video game network after it emerged the details of 77 million user accounts have been stolen.
The electronics firm uncovered a breach in its PlayStation Network (PSN) on April 19th, resulting in a temporary shutdown that has left users unable to download games or play online.
Sony’s music and video streaming service, Qriocity, was also affected. Sony said the breach by an “illegal and unauthorised person”, which occurred between April 17th and 19th, may have allowed the theft of names, addresses, e-mail addresses, birth dates, user names, passwords, logins, security questions and possibly credit card data.
However, Sony did not inform customers about the stolen data until yesterday. The company said it hired an external security firm to investigate the breach, which took “several days of forensic investigation” before Sony knew consumers’ data had been compromised.
Nick Caplin, head of Sony Computer Entertainment’s communications, defended its actions on the PlayStation blog. “It took our experts until [Tuesday] to understand the scope of the breach,” he wrote. “We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly [Tuesday] evening.”
In its statement, Sony said it saw no evidence credit card numbers were stolen, but it could not rule out the possibility the data had been compromised. It warned customers to be alert to possible identity theft scams using the information obtained.
“For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of e-mail, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information,” it said.
“To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.”
