2011-04-27
IRCNE201104003
ComputerWorld reports that It's been six days and the PlayStation Network is still offline, and now Sony has acknowledged that the problem involved a security breach.
The online multiplayer gaming site, along with Qriocity, Sony's cloud music subscription service, went down last Wednesday and may not be back for another week.
After the outage, Sony told users their sites had been hacked, prompting PlayStation engineers to take them offline to investigate.
Today, the company posted information online admitting that the hack had breached users' account information, including name, address, birth date, purchase history and online ID.
Patrick Seybold, a senior director at Sony, also noted in the blog post that there's no evidence users' credit card information was stolen. However, he added that "out of an abundance of caution," Sony is advising users that their credit card number and expiration date may have been obtained.
"We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network," the company wrote. "We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible."
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