14 DAY TRIAL // Video game hardware maker and publisher Sony has announced that the PlayStation Network service has been hacked by an unknown assailant, with about 93,000 accounts compromised, and has urged users to change their log-in details in order to make sure that they are not affected in any way.
Phillip Reitinger, who is the chief information security officer at Sony, has posted on the official European PlayStation blog, saying, “There were approximately 93,000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts.”
Reitinger has made it clear that no credit card data has been exposed in the attack and all users who have had their account balance compromised will be reimbursed by Sony.
A number of Sony Online Entertainment accounts that have been compromised have been temporarily disabled.
The security officer believes that the database of another company has been previously compromised and that attackers are using the account and password combinations to see whether they can penetrate PSN accounts.
He added, “We want to take this opportunity to remind our consumers about the increasingly common threat of fraudulent activity online, as well as the importance of having a strong password and having a username/password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites.”
He again urged PSN users to create unique passwords and not use them on other sites.
In April the PSN has been taken down by another round of hacker attacks, with million of user accounts compromised.
The service was restored about two months later and Sony promised that it had enhanced security features.
Sony was criticized for how the security breach was handled, especially for its silence during the initial hours of the attack, and seems to have learned that it needs to communicate better with users.