Sony PS network hacked (creditcard information)

Hackers who broke into Sony's
PlayStation Network online service
might have stolen members' credit
card information
Sony said The intrusion, which
happened between April 17 and
19, has resulted in a week-long
system outage that could last as
long as another week. As many as
75 million users globally use the
network to play online games
together and download movies, TV
episodes and game demos. Sony
says it will send an e- mail to all
account holders advising those who
gave their credit card information
to either PSN or Sony's new
Qriocity music system that hackers
may have gotten their credit card
number and expiration date but
not the card's security code.
"While there is no evidence at this
time that credit card data was
taken, we cannot rule out the
possibility," Patrick Seybold,
senior director of corporate
communications and social media,
said in a statement on Sony's
official PlayStation blog. "An
unauthorized person" did get
users' personal information
including birth date and e-mail
addresses, he said. In the wake of
the security breach, PSN members
should be alert for e-mail,
telephone and postal mail scams
that ask for personal or sensitive
information, Seybold said. Users
should change the passwords on
other services and accounts that
might use the same user name or
password as their PSN account. "We
encourage you to remain vigilant,
to review your account statements
and to monitor your credit
reports," he said. Consumers
should heed Sony's advice, says
Tim Rohrbaugh, vice president of
information security for
Intersections, an ID theft
protection and risk management
firm in Chantilly, Va. "On
something like a PlayStation or
(Internet-connected) TV, you
can't use the same password that
you use on your bank account or
the accounts where a lot of
damage can happen," he says.
Some users criticized Sony on
social networks and forums for
not coming forward with
information about the breach
sooner. But Rohrbaugh applauded
Sony for a quick response. "The
average amount of time it takes
for a company to find an
unauthorized access is six months-
plus," he says. The Sony breach
and another earlier this month at
Epsilon, which provides e-mail
marketing for 2,500 companies, is
"a wake-up call" to pay attention
to what is going on with your data,
he says. The outage comes at a bad
time for Sony. Hot titles such as
Valve Software's Portal 2, Warner
Bros. brawler Mortal Kombat and
PlayStation 3 exclusive Socom 4 all
hit stores last week.