Sony has announced that it has been forced to suspend over 93,000 accounts on its Playstation Network (PSN), Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment services.
Several large security breaches have resulted in an unauthorised source gaining access to the username and password combinations for over 93,000 online accounts. Sony has been quick to release a statement, confirming that there is no chance of credit or debit card details being at risk.
Sony has said that the breaches “appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or sources,” and that they “were unauthorised attempts to verify valid user accounts on our services using very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords.”
All affected accounts have been locked and users have been notified of the problem, with Sony advising the affected users to change their passwords immediately. This may leave thousands of Playstation gamers without access to their online accounts, a feeling that has become all too familiar after the series of security breaches and failings of the Playstation Network earlier this year.
“Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are continuing to investigate the extent of unauthorised activity on any of these accounts,” Sony said. The entertainment giant was also quick to note that the percentage of users affected is less than a tenth of a percent of their total online user base.
Sony’s security failings earlier this year lasted over a month, with hundreds of thousands of users affected in one way or another. The hacking scandal resulted in no online gaming for millions of Playstation 3 gamers worldwide, and made national news several times.
You can read the full statement from Sony regarding this issue below in the spoiler.
Have you been affected by this recent issue with the Playstation Network or any other Sony Online services?
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
[spoiler]We want to let you know that we have detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment (“Networks”) services to test a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords against our network database. These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources. In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks. We have taken steps to mitigate the activity.
Less than one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of our PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected. There were approximately 93,000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts. Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates as we have them. Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk. We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet.
As a preventative measure, we are requiring secure password resets for those PSN/SEN accounts that had both a sign-in ID and password match through this attempt. If you are in the small group of PSN/SEN users who may have been affected, you will receive an email from us at the address associated with your account that will prompt you to reset your password.
Similarly, the SOE accounts that were matched have been temporarily turned off. If you are among the small group of affected SOE customers, you will receive an email from us at the address associated with your account that will advise you on next steps in order to validate your account credentials and have your account turned back on.
We want to take this opportunity to remind our consumers about the increasingly common threat of fraudulent activity online, as well as the importance of having a strong password and having a username/password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites. We encourage you to choose unique, hard-to-guess passwords and always look for unusual activity in your account.[/spoiler]