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The Sony Chief Executive Officer, Mr Howard Stringer, has apologised for the inconvenience and concern caused by the “cyber attack” on the company's PlayStation and Qriocity network and has launched a $1 million identity theft insurance policy for its customers.
“I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you,” he said in a statement posted on Sony's US PlayStation blog, adding that the company will restore “full and safe service as soon as possible”.
For the US PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers, the company has launched a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user and said “announcements for other regions will be coming soon.”
He said that till date, “there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused.”
Massive breaches
Personal information like credit card data, email addresses and other information from around 100 million Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) accounts were hacked in two massive data breaches.
Sony began investigating unusual activity on the PlayStation network on April 19, but notified its consumers of the breach on April 26.
“I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process,” he said, adding that “hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken.”
The company is planning to reward its customers for their patience and is offering a “Welcome Back” package to its customers once the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running.
This package would include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost.
“We are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible. Our investigation is ongoing and we are upgrading our security so that if attacks like this happen again, our defences will be even stronger,” he said.
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