Sony PlayStation Network Hacked Again
Yesterday, Sony came across a "large amount" of unauthorized sign-in attempts on its "PlayStation Network" and other online entertainment services; 93,000 user accounts for those services have now been suspended.
The company stated that intruders, "using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords," had brief access to 60,000 accounts on the "PlayStation Network" and "Sony Entertainment Network" and another 33,000 accounts on "Sony Online Entertainment's" servers. The hackers were able to verify various sign-ins and ID-passwords from that point on.
Consumers' credit card information are said to be safe and "not at risk," however.
The intruders initiated their security breach from last Friday until this past Monday. Sony says that they only affected "less than one-tenth of 1 percent" of PSN, SEN, and SOE consumers.
Philip Reitinger, Chief Information Security Officer for Sony, gave a statement on the matter: "In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks."
Sony says it will only notify the affected account users of its services and urge them to change their log-in information.
"We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet," Reitinger said.
This latest security breach is still under investigation by Sony.
"We are continuing to investigate the extent of unauthorized activity on any of these accounts," Sony said.
An attempt at hacking the "PlayStation Network" has occurred before.
Earlier this year, Sony suffered unauthorized access to its "PlayStation Network" database and other online entertainment services, which affected more than 100 million user accounts worldwide and forced the company to temporarily suspend those services.
A hacker group by the name of "Anonymous" was suspected of committing this crime, but a suspected member of hacking group "LulzSec" was arrested in connection with it instead.
Customer confidence in the company's protection of the private and financial information may lower once again.