Sony Deals With Another Hack Attempt

12 Oct, 2011 By: Chris Tribbey

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Sony Oct. 12 temporarily shut down the accounts of approximately 93,000 PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment users, following the latest in a long string of attempted hacker breaches against the company.

Philip Reitinger, SVP and chief information security officer for Sony Group, said there was a massive test of sign-in IDs and passwords against Sony’s database, using information that appears to have come from compromised 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,” he said.

Reitinger said Sony is reviewing whether any personal information was compromised, though he stressed that credit card information was not accessed.

“We want to take this opportunity to remind our consumers about the increasingly common threat of fraudulent activity online, as well as the importance of having a strong password and having a username-password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites,” he said. “We encourage you to choose unique, hard-to-guess passwords and always look for unusual activity in your account.”

Sony has been the target of several hacker breaches since mid-April, starting with its PlayStation Network and expanding to Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Online Entertainment.
 

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