Sony Archive

Over 93,000 user accounts have been locked due to an attempted hacker attack. The hackers obtained a number of accounts’ user ID/ password combinations from an unknown source.

Philip Reitinger, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer announcedthat “Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network, and Sony Online Entertainment Networks [have experienced] 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 date tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelmingly majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks.”

Further instructions as to what users will do to reinstate their accounts will be sent to their e-mails.

This is not the first time the Sony PlayStation Network has been attacked. A costly $170 million attack back in April compromised over 77 million users’ private information, that evoked an appwhere users could tell whether their PSN was on or off.

Let this be a reminder that fraud and identity theft is common, and to choose unique passwords for various sites and to monitor any unusual activities on your account.

Theguardian.co.uk has broken down what every PlayStation user needs to know as far as hacking goes.

(via Mashable; photo via We Got this Covered)