25 million users suffer detail theft in online network hack atttack, Sony warns

Almost 25 million extra gaming users may have had their personal details taken in a hacker attack last week, says Sony.

3 May 2011, 12:00am

2 min read

On Monday, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) service went offline after a security breach. Sony later revealed that the user data issue related specifically to SOE and emerged as it was investigating the problem.

The SOE downtime comes after amissions by Sony that the personal details of 77 million Playstation users may have been stolen by hackers.

In a message to its customers, Sony said: "We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company." However, it added that "on 1 May we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen".

Sony was quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency as saying that the latest incident occurred on 16 and 17 April. This was earlier than the larger Playstation user security breach that had been previously reported online.

Sony said that during the most recently discovered security breach, names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and gender information was taken.

Additionally, direct debit details of around 10,700 customers in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany were stolen, as were the credit or debit card details of some 12,700 non-US customers.

Sony explained that the information included card numbers and expiry dates, but said that it was taken from a 2007 database which was securely encrypted. Spokeswoman Taina Rodriguez was reported as saying that there was no evidence as yet that the stolen information had been used for illicit financial gain.

The suspension of SOE, which is based in San Diego, California, was announced in brief statement on its website, Station.com.

Multiplayer games including DC Universe and Facebook-based Fortune League were unavailable as a result.

The company had previously said that it would get the Playstation network up-and-running again this week.

It said users would see a phased re-introduction of gaming, movie and music download services. Playstation Network has been unavailable since 20 April.