Playstation Network Hacked | featured news

Several gaming news outlets are reporting that Sony’s PlayStation Network password reset system has a weakness that makes it vulnerable to hackers.

For three pennies an hour, hackers can rent Amazon.com Inc.’s servers to wage cyber attacks such as the one that crippled Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Network and led to the second-largest online data breach in U.S. history. A hacker used Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud, or EC2, service to attack Sony’s online entertainment systems last month, a person with knowledge of the matter said May 13. The intruder, who used a bogus name to set up an account that’s now disabled, didn’t hack into Amazon’s servers, the person said.

Sony plans to start a gradual restoration of its PlayStation services Sunday as the company works to resume normal operations following a security breach that exposed personal details of 77 million users.

Sony said on Saturday it had removed off the Internet the personal details of 2,500 people that had been stolen by hackers and posted on a website.

Sony is reportedly attempting to avoid testifying before Congress later this week, after the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade asked the company to answer questions regarding its failure to protect the PlayStation Network from hackers. The memo distributed to subcommittee members suggests the hearing is designed to explore "risks related to data breaches" and data security practices utilized by the industry.

Sony Corp. said Monday that hackers may have taken personal information from an additional 24.6 million user accounts after a review of the recent PlayStation Network breach found an intrusion at a division that makes multiplayer online games. The data breach comes on top of the 77 million PlayStation accounts it has already said were jeopardized by a malicious intrusion.

Sony has taken its SOE multiplayer system offline as part of the ongoing investigation into the PlayStation Network hack.

Sony said it would resume some PlayStation Network services this week and offer some free content to attract users back after a huge security breach that allowed the theft of personal information belonging to 77 million accounts.

Sony's No. 2 exec, Kazuo Hirai, will brief media on Sunday about a huge security breach of its PlayStation Network, the first time an executive of the Japanese electronics giant will publicly address the case, which could prompt global legal actions.

The attack also has crippled Sony's PlayStation Network, which has some 70 million subscribers and has been down since April 20... The hacker could have taken credit card numbers, card expiration dates, billing addresses, answers to security questions and purchase history, but not credit-card security codes...