Hackers steal 25 million more personal accounts from Sony Online Entertainment database

[News_Editor]

Hackers steal 25 million more personal accounts from Sony Online Entertainment database

2011-05-04 06:41:34 GMT+7 (ICT)

ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO (BNO NEWS) -- Sony Corporation on Tuesday announced that almost 25 million more Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) accounts containing personal information were broken into, now bringing the total to more than 100 million.

According to the latest findings in their ongoing investigation of illegal intrusions into SOE systems, hackers may have stolen SOE customer information on April 16 and 17, including names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers, genders, and other information.

This information, which was discovered by engineers and security consultants reviewing SOE systems, showed that personal information from approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts may have been stolen, as well as certain information from an 'outdated database' from 2007.

The information from the outdated database that may have been stolen includes approximately 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates.

Sony said the info did not include credit card security codes, but did include around 10,700 direct debit records of certain customers in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain, as well as bank account numbers, customer names, account, names, and customer address.

Upon discovery of this additional information, Sony shut down all servers related to SOE services while continuing to review and upgrade all of its online security systems in the face of these unprecedented cyber-attacks.

On Sunday, Sony apologized to its customers for the inconvenience caused by its network services outages. The company, which is based in San Diego, California, is working with the FBI and continuing its own full investigation while working to restore all services.

During the weekend, Sony disclosed that on April 18, personal information on 77 million account holders were stolen from its PlayStation Network (PSN) and Qriocity media streaming service databases.

Sony said it was making this disclosure as quickly as possible after the discovery of the theft, and the company had posted information on its website and would send e-mails to all consumers whose data may have been stolen. However, the company has been strongly criticized by PSN users, security analysts and others after it took almost a week to shut down online services after the data breach.

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