Sony credit data risked in PlayStation

[alnjan]

Sony credit data risked in PlayStation

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Technology/2011/04/27/Sony_credit_data_risked_in_PlayStation_605980.html

Sony Corporation says the credit card data of PlayStation users around the world may have been stolen in a hack that forced it to shut down its PlayStation Network for the past week, disconnecting 77 million user accounts.

Some players brushed off the breach as a common hazard of operating in a connected world, and Sony said some services would be restored in a week. But industry experts said the scale of the breach was staggering and could cost the company billions of dollars.

'Simply put, one of the worst breaches we've seen in several years,' said Josh Shaul, chief technology officer for Application Security Inc., a New York-based company that is one of the country's largest database security software makers.

Sony said it has no direct evidence credit card information was taken, but said 'we cannot rule out the possibility'.

If the intruder successfully stole credit card data, the heist would rank among the biggest known thefts of financial data.


Police are advising anyone thinking they may be at risk to at least speak to their bank and possibly change credit cards to prevent or reduce risk of id theft and credit card fraud, including loans being obtain on your behalf, etc

[alnjan]

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/04/27/PlayStation_users_told_watch_credit_use_606076.html

PlayStation users in Australia are being urged to change their passwords, usernames and pins, and monitor their credit usage after hackers broke into the global network.

Sony Corporation shut down the network a week ago after some customers' account information was compromised.

Purchase history and credit card billing address information may also have been stolen, the company announced on Wednesday.

Seventy-seven million user accounts have been disconnected worldwide and industry experts have described the scale of the breach as staggering.

NSW Police Force Fraud Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Col Dyson on Wednesday warned Playstation users in Australia to be on the lookout for any breach of their personal information.

'In this particular instance the risk appears to be one of possible phishing targeting later on and that is unsolicited contact by email or telephone,' Supt Dyson told reporters.

He urged people not to give away any of their information if they receive unsolicited emails asking for confirmation of passwords or usernames, and to contact their bank.

People should also contact their bank if they see any irregular activity on their credit card.

'Certainly people should be changing ... regularly not just their passwords but their usernames as well,' Supt Dyson said.

Police have received no information from Sony or law enforcement agencies and at this stage they won't be investigating the matter, he added.

[D4D]

Don't think this isn't happening in AU. We don't have laws that require companies to report when they have had a breach and disclosure of private data. We need to implement laws such as they have in California. This is a scary read http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach

[speewa158]

Watching the ABC interview some bloke re the Sony job . He was asked if they can do this just who is safe  He shurgged his sholders & sat sat there .  RIPPER  that helped me sleep better 

[GGV8Cruza]

Mental picture of Speewa playing his PS3 in front of the plasma, I think not.. I think you are safe mate

GG

[SteveandViv]

Yea, bit of a worry. My kids do play on line (Call of duty etc) and we have purchases upgraded maps etc so we'll see.

[JohnT]

I recommend that people dont get swept up in the media frenzy that is being created around this topic. Whilst this is not a good news story, the media is trying to create a panic story.

In SA we have heard that we should consider canceling our credit cards. Neither the police or Sony have advised of such actions.

As with any online transactions, continue to monitor your credit cards as you normally do and if you notice anything strange, contact you bank. If you use the same password on your playstation account as you do your bank, you might want to consider changing your bank password. Remember that in most cases, your credit card is insured against fraud.

With that said, I think is it safe to assume that Sony encrypts peoples passwors (much the same as this site does) when thay are stored. So whilst the 'password' may have been copied, it is likely that these passwords are encrypted and therefor, without coupious amounts of time (months/years) these password will not be cracked.

I think the worst we will see from this mess is an increase in SPAM.

John

[darren]

Apparently there were nerds the world over living in fear they may have to spend a weekend outside.  Hopefully they had a death metal concert to go to.

[cruza driver]

Apparently there were nerds the world over living in fear they may have to spend a weekend outside.  Hopefully they had a death metal concert to go to.

I hate to see them in a power outage. 

[Bird]

According to the news a bloke in South Aust has had few grand gone from his account...

my boss finally got an email from Sony today telling him of the issues.

[D4D]

According to the news a bloke in South Aust has had few grand gone from his account...

Don't believe everything you read

[Bird]

Don't believe everything you read

true, but with 77million peoples data compromised, theres a fair chance it will have happened.

[D4D]

true, but with 77million peoples data compromised, theres a fair chance it will have happened.

Probably not, they (banks) will know the compromised card numbers and be able to detect fraudulent transactions on those cards. The AU credit act protects users anyway if their card has been fraudulently used. The sky is not falling for today at least, now back to regular programming.