This past Wednesday, Sony revealed that they had to lock nearly 100,000 PlayStation Network user accounts after they discovered a surge in unauthorized login attempts.
While this "hack" attempt was nowhere near the scale of the one that brought down the PlayStation Network for a few months earlier this year, it is still a rather substantial number of potentially compromised accounts. Fortunately, Sony was quick to catch this and the affected users are either already notified or will be notified soon via email.
In a statement Wednesday, Sony said it suspected that hackers had obtained login data from other Web sites or sources and used those to try to gain access to Sony accounts. Access was thought to have been gained to only a handful of accounts, and no credit card or other sensitive data were stolen, Sony said.(...)
Sony said that the latest attacks — which took aim at the PlayStation Network and other online services offering digital content — did not suggest a security weakness on its part. The hackers appear to have taken login information from other sites and tried them on Sony’s networks between last Friday and Monday, the company said. Because many Web users use the same names and passwords for many sites and services, about 93,000 combinations matched.
The company detected an unusual number of login attempts from particular Internet protocol addresses, however, and decided to freeze the accounts involved. Sony has e-mailed account owners to notify them of a possible breach and to ask them to reset their passwords.
“We were able to move swiftly, and we believe very few accounts were actually accessed,” said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony.
Sony said that the latest attacks — which took aim at the PlayStation Network and other online services offering digital content — did not suggest a security weakness on its part. The hackers appear to have taken login information from other sites and tried them on Sony’s networks between last Friday and Monday, the company said. Because many Web users use the same names and passwords for many sites and services, about 93,000 combinations matched.
The company detected an unusual number of login attempts from particular Internet protocol addresses, however, and decided to freeze the accounts involved. Sony has e-mailed account owners to notify them of a possible breach and to ask them to reset their passwords.
“We were able to move swiftly, and we believe very few accounts were actually accessed,” said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony.
While this "hack" attempt was nowhere near the scale of the one that brought down the PlayStation Network for a few months earlier this year, it is still a rather substantial number of potentially compromised accounts. Fortunately, Sony was quick to catch this and the affected users are either already notified or will be notified soon via email.
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