Sony shuts down 93,000 accounts after massive attack

Earlier this year Sony experienced one of the largest data breaches of all time, and now the company has announced their networks have been attacked again.

In an announcement made on Oct. 11, Sony informed the public that the company had "detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment (“Networks”) services to test a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords against our network database. These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources." According to Sony the majority of attempts were failed, however less than .1%, or about 93,000 accounts, were affected from the Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment (“Networks”) services. Affected accounts were not restricted to one area, but globally, mainly in the U.S. and Europe. In all 60,000 accounts hacked were from the PSN/SEN networks and SOE had about 33,000 accounts which intruders were able to get successful matches for valid log-in names and passwords. Sony has taken steps to block further compromise and the 93,000 affected accounts have been locked. The company has indicated that of the total accounts compromised, only a "small fraction showed additional activity" before Sony locked the accounts. All of the PSN/SEN accounts that had unauthorized access will be required to have password resets. SOE accounts have been "temporarily turned off". Customers can expect to receive an email from Sony with instructions on how to proceed and have accounts reactivated. According to Bloomberg's Business Week, the intrusions occurred between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10, and that personal information, including home addresses, may have been exposed to the exploiters. At this time Sony claims no credit card information has been exposed in this exploit. Last April's hack was serious cause for concern, but the situation had escalated when a secondary hack occurred on May 2. Sony has had its share of problems this year, and not just with hacks and unauthorized intrusions on their networks. Just yesterday the technology giant announced a massive recall of flat-screen TV sets because of potential fire risks.