In a story that just keeps on snowballing into the deepest depths of hell, it is now being discussed amongst "certain circles" that the personal details, including credit card info, of nearly 2.2 million PlayStation Network gamers are up for sale.
Yikes.
Now, before you start freaking out, keep this in mind. Sony said that they have no reason to believe the credit card information for any user was compromised in this attack. They also said that credit card information is encrypted within their system.
Secondly, the discussion on the unnamed forum says that the database that's up for sale also includes the passwords for third-party email accounts. That really wouldn't make any sense for Sony to have that in their records. So, chances are this is just another elaborate hoax on the part of the "hackers" offering the list for sale.
However, a number of users are claiming an increase in fraudulent charges being made to their bank accounts since this incident was first reported. It could very well just be a coincidence and given the high profile nature of the Sony hack, it is very plausible that Sony is now becoming the easy scapegoat for identify theft issues that are completely unrelated to the PlayStation Network.
I guess only time will tell the true scope of the issue.
Security expert Kevin Stevens of TrendMicro tweeted today (April 28) that low-level cybercriminals using "carder" online forums were offering to sell a database of 2.2 million credit-card numbers taken during the PlayStation Network breach.
Independent security blogger Brian Krebs then posted screenshots of four hackers discussing the purported database in a chat room.
"xxx: format is: fname, lnams, address, zipcode, country, phone, email, email password, dob, ccnum, cvv2, exp date," wrote user "Sutekh" in one of the screenshots.
In plain English, that's the first name, last name, address, postal code, country, telephone number, email address, email password, date of birth, credit-card number, credit-card security code and credit-card expiration date attached to each of 2.2 million accounts — including "150k german ones," as Sutekh said in a different posting.
"Sony was supposedly offered a chance to buy the DB (database) back but didn't," tweeted Stevens.
Independent security blogger Brian Krebs then posted screenshots of four hackers discussing the purported database in a chat room.
"xxx: format is: fname, lnams, address, zipcode, country, phone, email, email password, dob, ccnum, cvv2, exp date," wrote user "Sutekh" in one of the screenshots.
In plain English, that's the first name, last name, address, postal code, country, telephone number, email address, email password, date of birth, credit-card number, credit-card security code and credit-card expiration date attached to each of 2.2 million accounts — including "150k german ones," as Sutekh said in a different posting.
"Sony was supposedly offered a chance to buy the DB (database) back but didn't," tweeted Stevens.
Yikes.
Now, before you start freaking out, keep this in mind. Sony said that they have no reason to believe the credit card information for any user was compromised in this attack. They also said that credit card information is encrypted within their system.
Secondly, the discussion on the unnamed forum says that the database that's up for sale also includes the passwords for third-party email accounts. That really wouldn't make any sense for Sony to have that in their records. So, chances are this is just another elaborate hoax on the part of the "hackers" offering the list for sale.
However, a number of users are claiming an increase in fraudulent charges being made to their bank accounts since this incident was first reported. It could very well just be a coincidence and given the high profile nature of the Sony hack, it is very plausible that Sony is now becoming the easy scapegoat for identify theft issues that are completely unrelated to the PlayStation Network.
I guess only time will tell the true scope of the issue.
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