Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - Japanese electronics and gaming
group Sony's information security officer and vice-president Philip Reitinger
announced on Wednesday that the group has detected a network breach
affecting 93 000 accounts globally.
"We want to let you know that we have detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), PlayStation Network (PSN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) ("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.
"In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our networks. We have taken steps to mitigate the activity," said Reitinger on the PS Blog.
Sony said that less than 0.1% of its PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected. "There were approximately 93 000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60 000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33 000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts' valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts.
"Only a small fraction of these 93 000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked," Reitinger said.
Sony said it was reviewing those accounts for unauthorised access, and would provide more updates as the information became available. "Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk.
"We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorised purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet," Reitinger stressed.
In May, Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment admitted that a second security breach of about 24.6 million accounts had occurred at Sony Online Entertainment.
It followed the discovery of an illegal and unauthorised intrusion into its network on April 19, which exposed all PlayStation Network/Qriocity accounts, totalling up to 77 million people. In SA, PlayStation said it has 100 000 registered users.
"We want to let you know that we have detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), PlayStation Network (PSN) and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) ("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.
"In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our networks. We have taken steps to mitigate the activity," said Reitinger on the PS Blog.
Sony said that less than 0.1% of its PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected. "There were approximately 93 000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60 000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33 000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts' valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts.
"Only a small fraction of these 93 000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked," Reitinger said.
Sony said it was reviewing those accounts for unauthorised access, and would provide more updates as the information became available. "Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk.
"We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorised purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet," Reitinger stressed.
In May, Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment admitted that a second security breach of about 24.6 million accounts had occurred at Sony Online Entertainment.
It followed the discovery of an illegal and unauthorised intrusion into its network on April 19, which exposed all PlayStation Network/Qriocity accounts, totalling up to 77 million people. In SA, PlayStation said it has 100 000 registered users.
