Sony has undergone a second hack just two weeks after the initial attack took place, meaning another 25million accounts may have been compromised on top of the original 77million. This second wave of attacks comes just days after the top Sony directors made a traditional Japanese apology in a board meeting.
“We deeply apologise for the inconvenience we have caused,” said Kazup Hirai (one of the executives which took a bow at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo).
The Sony Online Entertainment Network allows people to play multiplayer games with their peers or strangers across the Internet. The facility allows users to also download films as well as upgrades to games.
Among data stolen from Sony’s servers were names, addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers in addition to other information. Furthermore data was taken from an out-dated 2007 database.
24,000 financial records belonging to people from outside the U.S. have been taken. This includes bank details of customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. However Sony claim that there is no evidence that the information stolen has been used for illegal gain.
Mr Hirai is claiming that parts of the service would be back this week and that Sony has plans to significantly beef up security measures. However this doesn’t change the fact that some 3 million Britons using the Sony system have been caught up in the largest criminal cyber attack on record.
