Sony recently warned PlayStation Network users that their personal information, including sensible details related to their credit cards could have been stolen during an attack on the network the other days.
According to the company, the information arrived in the hands of “unauthorized persons”, Sony officials admitting that the network associated with Sony PlayStation console was attacked by hackers.
Sony warns users to be aware of potential fraud attempts by phone and/or e-mail. Nick Caplin, communications director of the company for Europe region, revealed in the blog post what information could have been stolen by hackers: physical address, country of residence, e-mail address, birth date and passwords for accessing the PlayStation Network and Qriocity, online shopping history (from the network) and billing address as well.
Moreover, Sony officials have acknowledged that information about credit cards / debit cards used to purchase games, movies and music could have been stolen, and this is the most important aspect of this issue. “While there is no evidence that this has happened, yet we cannot exclude this possibility, ” said Caplin. “If you submit credit card information via PlayStation Network or Qriocity it is possible that credit card number (except the security code) and date of expiry of the card could be obtained” Caplin ended.
Sony did not specify how many users could be affected, but while this online service has about 77 million members worldwide it could be a massive hit for millions of users. PlayStation Network was blocked from accessing on 20 April and Sony officials did not say when their service would resume.
This recent problem seems to be placing Sony face to face with a major PR disaster while it is one of the most popular and trusted brand worldwide. We should wait and see how they manage to deal with this issue on the long run.