14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has alerted its over 75 million PlayStation Network customers that their personal and possibly their financial information has been compromised as a result of a recent intrusion that led to the system being shut down.
The PlayStation maker finally decided to shed more light into the incident that forced it to take down the PSN on April 20 and keep it offline until now.
The company previously issued vague announcements referencing an external intrusion and the need to rebuild the system with better security, which left the door open to much speculation.
Apparently, most of the things speculated don't even come close to the gravity of the real situation, as it turns out the intrusion exposed the personal details of 77 million gamers.
"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID," Sony wrote in an email sent to affected individuals.
But that's not all. According to the company, "It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained."
And if you think it can't get any worse than that, yes it can. If you happened to have sub-accounts connected to your primary one, the information associated with those has also been compromised.
Moreover, the company doesn't exclude the possibility of credit data provided via the PSN being obtained. That's another way of saying that you should assume it is.
"For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information," Sony writes, suggesting that you might still have some information that wasn't yet compromised.
As for when exactly will people be able to play games on the PSN again, that's still up in the air, but some services are expected to return within a week.