Sony Locks 93,000 User Accounts After Unauthorised Activity
Tue 18 Oct, 2011 // Chris Allan
Not long after the hacking of Sony's PlayStation Network and Online Entertainment Service, four months ago, that left over 100 million users exposed to fraud, Sony appointed Philip Reitinger as their first chief information security officer (CISO). A cyber security expert with plans of addressing the current security problems at Sony. With hope of encouraging the public and helping to restore consumer confidence after the massive attack that left many customers vulnerable and worried over personal information being stolen.
But again Sony faced their worst fears and had to lock down 93,000 user accounts after detecting a large amount of unauthorised log-in attempts on it's Playstation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment.
A statement was released on the 12 of October, by Sony, and confirmed that there has been “approximately 93,000 accounts (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts.”
Fortunately credit card numbers associated with these accounts are not at risk and only a small number of those 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. Sony has assured their users that there is a continuing investigation to realise the extent of unauthorized activity, on any of those accounts, as confirmed within the statement.
Philip Reitinger, Sony's CISO, posted on the Playstation Blog before the statements was released. Explaining to the Sony community that “These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or sources.”
The unauthorized attempts to verify valid user accounts on Sony's Networks used very large sets of sign-in IDs and passwords and carried out between October 7 and 10.
Reitinger continued “As a preventative measure, we are requiring secure password resets for those PSN/SEN accounts that had both a sign-in ID and password match through this attempt. If you are in the small group of PSN/SEN users who may have been affected, you will receive an email from us at the address associated with your account that will prompt you to reset your password.”
Sony have encouraged users to ensure that their username and passwords must be strong and not associated to any other online accounts or services.
It is vital for larger organisations who deal with private and sensitive information, to realise the importance of Security Testing, to help manage risks and vulnerabilities.
Find out more about the information security advice and services provided by commissum to ensure your data remains secure.
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