Hackers again target Sony, compromise more than 93,000 accounts

[News_Editor]

Hackers again target Sony, compromise more than 93,000 accounts

2011-10-12 23:49:24 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- A large number of hacking incidents on PlayStation Network (PSN), Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) services have forced Sony to freeze more than 93,000 accounts on Wednesday, the company said.

According to the company, hackers were able to successfully verify valid sign-in IDs and passwords of approximately 93,000 accounts - 60,000 PSN and SEN accounts and 33,000 SOE accounts - between Friday and Monday U.S. Pacific Daylight Time.

The incident forced Sony to temporarily lock the compromised accounts while the affected account holders are being notified. Sony said that less than one tenth of one percent of PSN, SEN and SOE consumers have been affected and that data from the users' bank accounts are not at risk.

"Credit card numbers associated with these accounts are not at risk as a result of these unauthorized attempts," Sony stated. "Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are continuing to investigate the extent of unauthorized activity on any of these accounts."

In April, the personal information of 77 million account holders was stolen from Sony's PlayStation Network and from Qriocity media streaming service databases. And in May, Sony announced that an additional 25 million accounts were hacked, bringing the total to more than 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 the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and in some Asian countries and regions on June 2. Services in Hong Kong were restored on June 14 followed by South Korea on June 24.

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

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