SONY HAS moved to allay consumer fears as concerns mounted over a significant data breach at its online network.
The incident, which occurred between April 17th and 19th, may have exposed private details of some 77 million account holders.
The electronics giant yesterday said its subscribers’ credit card details were encrypted, although personal information was not.
“All of the data was protected, and access was restricted . . . The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table . . . was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack,” the company said.
Sony said it was working with police on the matter. However, the company is now facing investigations from data protection regulators throughout Europe.
A spokesman for Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner confirmed that the office had been in contact with Sony Ireland over the matter. Under a code of practice governing data breaches, the company must provide an initial report to data protection officials within two working days of becoming aware of the incident.
Sony’s investigation is ongoing.
A spokeswoman for Sony Ireland said the information would be supplied through the London office, where the company has its European headquarters.
In a post on its European PlayStation blog, Sony said it was working to get its services back online.
“We are taking steps to make our services safer and more secure than ever before,” it wrote. “We sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern this outage has caused, and rest assured that we’re going to get the services back online as quickly as we can.”
The spokeswoman for Sony Ireland said the firm was hoping to have limited services available next week.
