A pre-registration survey from Reliance Digital for Sony’s PlayStation 5 which is yet to be launched in India left personal details of hundreds of potential customers in India exposed on the web, according to a report by MediaNama.
Reliance Digital had released a pre-registration survey for interested, potential buyers of the gaming console. The survey was in a Google Form format. According to the report, once a customer had filled up the survey, they were shown an option to view other responses for the form.
After clicking on the option to view other responses, users were directed to responses submitted by other participants in the survey. These details included names, email addresses and phone numbers. MediaNama was able to view the responses of nearly 100 participants. The survey by then had been filled out by over 800 people, the report said.
The survey was taken down by the company after being informed by MediaNama. However, no official response was provided.
A Sony spokesperson responding to the incident said, “Thank you for bringing this to our notice, we have shared this information with Reliance to take necessary action. Sony India follows strict privacy protocols to safeguard its customer data,” as quoted by the report.
Sony’s launch of PS5 has already been leveraged by cybercriminals to conduct major phishing campaigns, according to a recent report by Kaspersky.
“Phishers and scammers are becoming increasingly interested in using the launch of the new PlayStation to their advantage,” warned Kaspersky.
The cybersecurity firm had discovered nearly 130 suspicious resources mentioning ‘PlayStation’ in the name in October alone.
“These sites mainly offer visitors the chance to pre-order the PlayStation 5 by making a prepayment or by leaving personal information. Some web pages even offered purchasing the console at a lower price than the official retail cost,” Kaspersky had said.
Some resources also claimed to have a “special sale price” available for PlayStation 4 attributing the discount to the release of the new PS5 as part of the scam.