Sony announced that customer data of 70 million of its gaming network had been stolen. Data elements affected are names, passwords, and e-mail addresses. It appears to be the largest privacy breach of its kind.
Sony notified its gaming network customer only 6 days after it had closed its PlayStation Network. It disclosed last week that it had shut the network after discovering it had been hacked and stated on Monday, that it did not know when the security improvements required to restart the network, which has more than 70m users, would be in place. Many Sony customers were outraged that the company had failed to warn them earlier that passwords might have been lost and had not encrypted them to begin with.
Only a couple of weeks ago, e-mail marketing leader Epsilon revealed that hackers had penetrated its computer systems and obtained an undisclosed number of customer email address and names. The US firm sends over 40bn emails annually on behalf of over 2,500 clients including big-name retailers and financial services giants. Source: Financial Times
