Sony confirms PSN data theft

PlayStation platform holder Sony has confirmed many users’ worst fears – the intrusion” that saw PSN taken down last week has resulted in some personal information being compromised and the theft of some data.

We have discovered that between April 17th and April 19th 2011 certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorised intrusion into our network,” an email that will be sent to affected customers reads..

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorised person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. 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 authorised a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking.

When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.”

Sony says it is working night and day” to restore the network and hopes to have "some" services back online "within a week".