California : Japanese Electronic giant Sony has been hit by second security attack by hackers as company revealead that hackers have stolen data of another 25 million users of its PC games system in a second massive breach for the consumer electronics giant.
Hackers breached Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) network as well as PlayStation Network and Qriocity streaming music service, the Japanese consumer electronics company said on
Monday.The revelation comes just a day after Kazuo Hirai, Sony executive vice-president, announced that measures had been put in place to avert another cyberattack like that which hit its PlayStation Network, hoping to repair its tarnished image and reassure customers.
The attack that Sony disclosed on Monday had occurred a day before a massive break-in of a separate video game network that led to the theft of 77 million users' accounts. Sony revealed that initial attack last week.
The company said it discovered the break-in of its SOE PC games network on May 2. The breach also led to the theft of 10,700 direct debit records from customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain and 12,700 non-US credit or debit card numbers, it said.
The PlayStation network lets video game console owners download games and play against friends. The SOE network - the victim of the latest break-in - hosts games played over the internet on PCs.
Sony said late on Monday that the names, addresses, emails, birth dates phone numbers and other information from 24.6 million PC games customers were stolen from its servers as well as an "outdated database" from 2007.
A spokesman for the online games unit based in San Diego, California, said the service was taken down at 1:30am Pacific time on Monday.
Sue Tanaka, Sony's spokeswoman, when asked about the possibility other data could be at risk, listed the precautions that the company has taken such as firewalls. "They are hackers. We don't know where they're going to attack next," Tokyo-based Tanaka said.
The PlayStation Network incident has sparked legal action and investigations by authorities in North America and Europe, home to almost 90 per cent of the users of the network, which enables gamers to download software and compete with other members.
