Hacker Steals 70 Million Sony PlayStation Network Users and Personal Info

Sony confirmed that a hacker stole personal information from upwards of 70 million account holders and subscribers of the PlayStation Network.

Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment, part of the world's fifth largest media conglomerate, is the creator of the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) gaming console which offers an online network (PlayStation Network) for account holders and subscribers to play games online or download media content (movies, TV shows, ect.). A recent attack, that reportedly took place a week ago just before April 20th, has compromised 70 million PlayStation Network subscribers' personal data, ending up in Sony shutting down the PlayStation Network. During the attack, Sony says that there is no evidence currently to suggest that credit card data was taken. However, data including email addresses, passwords, birthdates, home addresses and users' names were obtained by the perpetrator.

There is a major uproar among PlayStation Network subscribers due to the fact that Sony has waited almost a week later to notify members of the attack especially when the data stolen consists of such pertinent user information. Some of the subscribers reacted with the following statement:

"You waited a WEEK to tell us our (personal) information was compromised?" one PlayStation user wrote on a Sony blog. "That should have been said last Thursday"

Reportedly, the intrusion to the Sony PlayStation Network occurred between April 17 and April 19. The network was taken down by Sony on April 20, which at the time, subscribers were left in the dark not knowing what had taken place. The network was said to be restored within two days but remained to be down for a longer period of time.

At this time no one has 100% ruled out the idea of credit card data being stolen. It is already bad enough that Sony has said other personal data may have been compromised, which could easily lead to identity theft.

In lieu of the recent PlayStation Network hacking incident, Sony is urging customers "to protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss" by reviewing credit-card statements and suggesting placing "fraud alerts" with credit bureaus.

If we look back into other data breaches just this year, you will notice some of them resulted spam campaigns and malware scams. Researchers and security experts fear that this could happen in the recent PlayStation Network hack, or even worse, have the stolen data posted online somewhere. What if just a portion of the 70 million effected PlayStation users and subscribers' data was posted online? Virtually anyone with the know-how could break into other online accounts belonging to a victim. Better yet, a hacker armed with this data could clean out the online banking accounts of thousands of PlayStation Network users. They don't need your credit card information to do this. A simple email username/password may do just the trick.

Are you a subscriber or user of the PlayStation Network? If so, have you changed your email password that you may have used on the PlayStation Network yet? We strongly suggest any subscriber to the PlayStation Network to change their online passwords now rather than later. Right now you have to ask yourself, would you trust anyone with the information that you may have used to access the PlayStation Network even if it is not a full credit card number?