Sony said it will fully restore all Playstation Network videogame services in Japan, marking the resumption of all network services worldwide after a massive security breach forced the company to shut them down in April.
Sony said that PlayStation and Qriocity network services will be fully back online on July 6th, after the theft of data on 77 million PlayStation accounts and an 11-week shutdown.
Services have been brought back only partially in Japan, which accounts for less than 10 per cent of PlayStation network users.
Hackers also stole data from 25 million users of a separate system, its Sony Online Entertainment PC games network, in a breach discovered on May 2nd.
The security breaches have forced Sony executives to appear before a US Congressional hearing, and were followed by a reshuffle of management at Sony's gaming unit. Its shares have lost 12 per cent since April 26th, the day before the company revealed the first attack.
Cyber security is quickly becoming a priority for policymakers. An attack on defence contractor Lockheed Martin may have compromised SecureID tokens made by EMC, while data on US government officials may have been stolen through an attack on Google.
Shares of Sony ended up 0.3 per cent before the announcement today, against a 1 per cent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average.
Reuters
