Sony Corp has warned its 75 million online customers accessing its PlayStation Network and Qriocity to check their credit card accounts as some important credit card data such as billing addresses and other personal information may have been stolen by a hacker.
"While there is no evidence at this time that credit-card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility," Patrick Seybold, a Sony spokesman, said on the company blog page.
The hacker obtained user-provided names, e-mail addresses, birth dates, log-in information and purchase history, Seybold said.
Bloomberg Research said the Sony intrusion follows a March 30 breach at Alliance Data System Corp.'s Epsilon Data Management LLC, which resulted in the theft of customer data at banks including Citigroup Inc. And JP Morgan Chase&Co, as well as retailers such as Best Buy Co. and Walgreen Co.
The company reported the intrusion to the Federal Bureau of Investigations in San Diego, California, which specializes in cybercrime, the New York Times said on its website.
Sony rose 0.5 percent to 2,426 yen as of 10:06 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stock retreated 17 percent this year, after adding 9.6 percent in 2010.
The PlayStation Network, which provides access to online games, movies and TV shows, was attacked from April 17 to April 19. Sony had combined PlayStation Network customer data with Qriocity, which offers movies or music in 11 nations on Web- connected Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players. That service also was compromised, Sony said.
Source: OfficialWire
