Up to 77 Million Sony Playstation Network users have been told to cancel their credit cards, after Sony finally admitted after 10 days, that their network has been compromised and personal data stolen.Sony who became aware of problems with their Playstation network as early as April 17th, chose not to tell their customers of the hack attack for several days.
The company said the account information for the PlayStation Network and its Qriocity service was compromised between April 17 and April 19.
Overnight Sony said that names, addresses and other personal data belonging to about 77 million people who have accounts on Sony Electronics’ PlayStation Network, had been stolen.
The “illegal and unauthorised person” got access to people’s names, addresses, email address, birthdates, and usernames, passwords, logins, and security questions and more, Sony said on its U.S. PlayStation blog.
Sony also said that the accounts of children whose accounts were linked to a parents credit card accounts, have also been compromised.
The network which is still down has over 500,000 users in Australia. Sony Computer Entertainment management in Australia has still not responded to how Australian users are affected.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained,” Sony said.
The company said that users should issue fraud alerts on their credit card accounts with their local banks. They also said that it could take another week to restore the network.
Microsoft, meanwhile, sent its condolences to Sony users. In a recent statement the Xbox 360 maker said: “Of course it’s regretful that Sony is encountering issues at such a busy time, and Microsoft takes no joy in the problems gamers are having playing their favourite games online. That being said, we are expecting Microsoft’s robust online network to see an increase of traffic from those gamers who own both systems. Being able to play their games via the Xbox Live network could make all the difference for some gamers”.
