Sony Apologizes for Online Data Breach
Sony Corp. said Sunday that it couldn’t rule out the possibility that credit-card information from 10 million customers may have been compromised by the security breach at its online videogame service, although the company said there is no evidence at this time to indicate that the data had been stolen.
At a hastily called news conference over a holiday weekend, three Sony executives including Kazuo Hirai, the head of its videogame and consumer electronics unit, bowed deeply to apologize for the inconvenience caused to its customers when a hacker penetrated its PlayStation network database and stole personal information about the service’s 77 million registered accounts. Sony had said that credit-card information registered with the service may be at risk, but this was the first time the company publicized the amount of credit-card numbers that may be vulnerable to theft. The company confirmed that the hacker had obtained names, addresses, e-mail addresses and birthdates of its account holders.
The briefing in Tokyo was the first time Sony executives faced reporters about the security breach since it took the extreme measure of shutting down the PlayStation network and Qriocity streaming video and music services on April 20 upon discovering the intrusion. Reporters peppered Mr. Hirai with questions about why Sony didn’t have tougher online security and why it waited so long to inform its users of the breach.