A visitor plays with a ' PlayStation ' at an exhibition booth at the exhibition Gamescom 2009 in Cologne, Germany in this photo file, August 22, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Ina FAssbenderBy Tim Kelly and Liana b. BakerTOKYO/NEW YORK | Di 26 april 2011 11: 43 pm EDT
Tokyo/NEW YORK (Reuters)-Sony Corp suffered a massive violation in the video game online network, the theft of names, addresses, and any credit card information belonging to 77 million user accounts, in one of the largest Internet security burglary ever.
Sony said it learned of the infringement in its popular PlayStation Network on 19 April, asking for the network immediately closed. Sony do not tell the public about the stolen data until Tuesday, hours after it launched its new Tablet PCs in Japan.
An "illegal and unauthorized person" obtained names, addresses, e-mail addresses, birth date, user names, passwords, logins, security questions and more, said Sony on its u.s. PlayStation blog on Tuesday.
A Sony spokesman said that it took "several days of forensic investigations" after learning of the struggle for the company knew consumer data in danger.
The news sparked anger among the users.
"If you have compromised my credit information, you will receive the never again," read a message on the PlayStation Network blog of a user under the name Korbei83.
"The fact that you've waited this long to reveal this information to your customers is regrettable. Shame on you. "
The conglomerate is the latest Japanese electronics company to come under fire for disclosure is not bad news quickly. Tokyo Electric Power Co. was criticized for covered how the nuclear crisis following the earthquake of 11 March. Last year, Toyota Motor Corp. was slammed for less than candid about problems about a massive vehicle recall.
The shutdown of the PlayStation Network prevent owners of Sony video game console, buy and download games, and also play with rivals on the Internet.
Sony said that the number of network services within a week could restore.
Alan Paller, Director of the research of the SANS Institute, said that the violation could be the biggest identity theft data information on record.
The online network was launched in the autumn of 2006 and offers games, music and movies for people with PlayStation consoles. It had 77 million registered users as of 20 March, a Sony spokesman, almost 90 percent of them in Europe or the United States.
Sony shares fell 0.3% in Tokyo with 0240 GMT, poorly performing a 0.8 percent increase in the benchmark Nikkei index.
MAJOR SETBACK
The fracture is a major setback for the Japanese consumer electronics maker. Although video game hardware and software sales worldwide are down, the Playstation franchise is a source of substantial profit and remains a flagship product for Sony.
Sony PlayStation games wants to lure consumers to buy its first tablet computers use. The company will begin selling the tablets later this year to compete against Apple Inc's iPad and targets Samsung Electronics to nr. 2 in the burgeoning market.
The company is also planning to launch a new device, hand-held games, the next generation of portable, by the end of the year.
Children with accounts established by their parents also could have their data exposed, Sony said.
Sony said it saw no evidence credit card numbers were stolen, but cautioned that the users can not exclude the possibility.
"From an abundance of caution, we advise you that your credit card number (with the exception of security code) and the expiration date may be obtained," Sony said.
Analysts said that while Sony has notified customers of the breach, it still doesn't had provided information on how user information maybe has not been tampered with.
"This is an infringement of the massive data security," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, which Sony generates an estimated $ 500 million in annual revenues of the service. "The larger problem with Sony is how the hacker the info has been obtained illegally will use it?"
Sony said it was a "outside recognized security firm" had hired to investigate.
The company said user account information for the PlayStation Network and the users of the Qriocity was compromised between 17 April and 19 April.
Sony probably did not enough attention to security when it was the development of the software that its network running Paller said. In the rush to get out of innovative new products, safety can sometimes take a backseat.
"They have quickly innovate. That's the business model, "Paller said. "New software errors in it. So they reveal code with errors in the large number of people, which is a disaster in the making. "
He suspected that the hackers the network through the acquisition of the PC from a system administrator, that rights for access to sensitive information about Sony's customers had entered. They did that probably by sending the administrator creating an e-mail message that a piece of malicious software running on his or her PC have downloaded.
Hackers have stolen personal data in the past of large businesses. In 2009 Albert Gonzalez pleaded guilty to stealing tens of millions of payment card numbers by breaking into corporate computer systems at companies such as 7-Eleven Inc. and Target co.
Sony said that its users can place fraud alerts on their credit card bills by three U.S. credit card agencies, which in its statement to councils.
The company refused comment on whether it worked with law enforcement or other parties in her research.
Sony has the violation reported to Federal Bureau of Investigations, the New York Times reported on its website. Democrat senator Richard Blumenthal also sent a letter to the Japanese firm asking to explain why they are not in knowledge Playstation owners early.
(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo and Jim Finkle in Boston; Edit by Lincoln feast, Anshuman Daga and Dean Yates)
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