Sony chief Stringer says sorry for online hacks
Sony Chief Executive Sir Howard Stringer apologises to users of the company’s PlayStation and PC games networks for recent data breaches affecting more than 100 million users.
In a letter posted on the PlayStation blog, Mr Stringer acknowledged concern that affected customers had not been notified of the hacks earlier and apologised for “the inconvenience and concern” caused by the attack.
He said services to the affected networks would be restored “in the coming days” but failed to offer a specific date. The PSN has now been unavailable for more than two weeks.
Sony shares in Tokyo ended 2.3 per cent lower today. Total losses since the breach was declared now extend to around 6 per cent.
Online hacking vigilantes Anonymous, who have claimed responsibility for previous attacks on Sony and other corporations, have denied responsibility for the data theft.
Sir Howard Stringer has failed to offer a specific date on which affected services will be restored.
On 3 May Sony UK’s David Wilson said he believed Anonymous was behind the hacks. “They’re incredibly clever people, but a quite disparate, inter-continental group,” he told Channel 4 News.
“They’ve said they’re not doing it, but they’ve also said they don’t know whether they’re doing it or not.”
Mr Stringer also announced Sony is launching a $1m (£608,000) data theft insurance policy for US PSN and Qriocity users. One expert has estimated that the breach could cost in excess of $2bn.
Sony's hack attack
Read more on the background to the theft of data on Sony's PlayStation and Online Entertainment networks.
‘External intrusion’
On 22 April the Japanese entertainment and electronics corporation announced there had been an “external intrusion” on its PSN and Qriocity services, which allow users to watch films, listen to music and to play PlayStation games online.
The security breach had occurred between 17 and 19 April, prompting Sony to suspend PSN and Qriocity on 20 April. An estimated 77 million people worldwide were affected.
Personal details of 77 million users, including name, address, country, email address, birth date, password, password security answer and online ID, may have been compromised.
Xbox threat
On 2 May a Sony press release stated that Sony Online Entertainment services had also been taken offline as a result of a separate but related hack, thought to have taken place on 18 April.
It is thought names, addresses, emails, birthdates, phone numbers and other information from 24.6 million PC games accounts could have been stolen in this second data breach.
Fears concerning Sony’s porous online security arrangements have prompted warnings on the official PlayStation fan page on Facebook and on the PlayStation bog that some users will migrate away from PlayStation to the rival Xbox console, owned by Microsoft.