Sony initiates mass-email alert

PlayStation Network customers are beginning to receive email warnings regarding the service’s extraordinary security threat.

In a mass-email the PlayStation firm writes:

“We believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address, country, email address, birth-date, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID.”

It is likely that the email was sent to every single active PSN user.

Sony announced in January this year that over 69 million people have registered a PlayStation Network account.

Yesterday Sony revealed that the data of "possibly all" PSN users had got into the hands of an unauthorised individual.

So far the stolen information has not led to reports of illicit credit card activity or identity theft, Sony claims.

“Not at this point in time,” the firm said yesterday.

It cannot be ruled out that credit card data was taken as part of the hack, Sony added, and judging by the perceived scale of the security alert, the likelihood of PSN credit card fraud is high.

In the mass-email, the company continued:

“It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained.

“If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence that credit card data was taken at this time, we cannot rule out the possibility”.

Since the announcement last night, a flood of PSN users have asked their banks to change their credit card details.

Passwords have been wiped and some credit ratings have been put on ‘fraud alert’