Sony fully restores PlayStation network in Japan

[News_Editor]

Sony fully restores PlayStation network in Japan

2011-07-06 06:57:38 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- Sony Corporation on Tuesday announced that its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services would be fully restored by Wednesday in Japan.

On April 18, personal information on 77 million account holders were stolen from Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity media streaming service databases. In May, Sony announced that an additional 25 million accounts were hacked bringing the total to over 100 million.

As the result of a criminal cyber attack on the company's data-center, which is located in San Diego, California, Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on April 20, in order for the company to undergo an investigation and make enhancements to the overall security of the network infrastructure.

On May 28, the company started a phased restoration of services in Japan, and after conducting testing of the payment process and commerce functions, the company restored services in Hong Kong on June 14 and in South Korea on June 24, following full restoration in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and in some Asian countries and regions on June 2.

With the full service restoration in Japan, PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will have been restored in all countries and regions where the services were operated before the system was shut down in April.

On June 10, three individuals suspected of leading the 'Anonymous' so-called hacktivist group - which in addition to the PlayStation network have allegedly carried out a number of cyber attacks against Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia, Italian energy company Ente Nazionale per l'Energia eLettrica, as well as the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Columbia and New Zealand - were arrested in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Valencia, and Almeria.

Since October 2010, the Technology Investigation Brigade of Spain's National Police analyzed over 2 million chat conversations and websites used by hacking networks, which finally led to the arrest of the three individuals. According to Spain's Interior Ministry, all of the attacks were conducted from a server located at one of the individual's homes in Gijon.

The incident was highly covered by international media and an investigation was launched into the illegal intrusions, which revealed that hackers stole Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) customer information on April 16 and 17, including names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers, genders, and other information.

The intrusions were discovered by engineers and security consultants reviewing SOE systems. Sony shut down all servers related to their SOE services while continuing to review and upgrade all of its online security systems in the face of these unprecedented cyber-attacks which cost an estimated $170 million in damages.

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.

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