Other LanguagesThe credit card data of Sony PlayStation and Qriocity users may have been stolen, news sources reported this afternoon. We suggest users close out the credit card on file with Sony and place a fraud alert on their credit reports.
Here's the Associated Press report:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sony Corp. said Tuesday that the credit card data of PlayStation users may have been stolen in an intrusion that caused it to shut down its PlayStation Network for the past week.
The network, which connects players in live game play worldwide, was shut down by the company last Wednesday after it said account information for certain players was compromised early last week.
An unauthorized person obtained players' names, addresses, birth dates, email addresses, passwords, log-in names and online handles, Sony said. Although it has no evidence credit card information was taken, the company said, "we cannot rule out the possibility."
Purchase history and credit card billing address information may also have been stolen, Sony said.
Sony said it has hired an outside security firm to investigate what happened and has taken steps to rebuild its system to provide greater protection for personal information.
The company said it expects to restore some services within a week.
Bloomberg reported that hackers attacked Sony from April 17 and April 19, affecting the PlayStation Network and Qriocity, which offers movies or music in 11 nations on Web-connected Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players. Sony shut down both services on April 20. As many as 75 million people may be affected.
Sony's blog states the company is working to send email messages to all registered account holders informing them of the breach and warning them not to provide any personal information in response to an email, phone call, etc. The company also recommends people their passwords and user IDs when the system is restored.