Sony Faces New Hacks As PlayStation Network Comes Back Online

About a month after Sony's PlayStation Network was hacked, exposing the account information of 100 million users, Sony faces a series of smaller hacks across the company's systems.

So-net Entertainment Corp, a subsidiary of Sony, discovered that a hacker stole about $1,225 worth of customers' redeemable gift points, according to the Wall Street Journal. That same day, security firm F-Secure found that Sony's Thailand server was running a live phishing scam.

So-net does not believe the breach on its systems was connected to the PSN hack. The company reported that an intruder tried 10,000 times to access the So-net point service, which gives customers gift points that can be exchanged for products. So-net said that the intruder likely had usernames for accounts and proceeded to use software that generated passwords in the attempts of finding the right one. Points were redeemed from 128 customer accounts, and another 73 accounts and 90 email accounts were accessed.

In the case of Sony Thailand, The Next Web confirmed that the phishing site hosted on the hdworld.sony.co.th URL was the result of a hack, likely through some security weakness in the server's infrastructure.

Earlier this week, Sony was forced to take down sign-ins across the PlayStation Network due to a vulnerability in the password reset page that allowed hackers to get into user accounts using only an email address and a date of birth.

While none of these breaches near the magnitude of the original PlayStation Network breach, it seems perhaps that such vulnerabilities are only now being discovered because of the scrutiny the company and its systems have come under following the PSN hack. Experts believe that Sony is only one of many companies that must improve its security to prevent further attacks, and that without such measures, similar hacks will happen again.

"It's a realization that we all had, that no system is 100 percent safe," Kazuo Hirai, the Sony exec managing the breach said at a briefing earlier this week. "This requires constant monitoring and constant vigilance."

Comments

[CrookWatch]

12:08 AM on 05/23/2011

Note to Sony (Or any other corporation): Stop being so cheap and spring some for security! We are fed up with your data breaches and stop making excuses!

[MorandiEngage]

12:05 PM on 05/22/2011

If I were the CEO of Sony, I could use all my wage for research about security of psn and how improve it, but as all CEOs, they don't care about costumers' situation but about their pockets.

[5pliff5tar]

05:30 PM on 05/21/2011

So much fail lol. Sony you suck!

[okila]

02:03 AM on 05/21/2011

Bill gates needs to get out his basement and stop this madness!!!!

[poyntek]

02:49 PM on 05/20/2011

This is kinda scary, Sony seems to not be very secure with it's networks, I know the Sony PSN is supposed to be "fixed" now, but if this can happen how long before the PSN is hacked again. I think I'm going to move way from PS3 to Xbox or I may just wait until the Wii 2 comes out, from what I'm reading it looks pretty nice...

http://www.tech-adventures.com/2011/04/nintendo-says-wii-2-is-in-works.html

[J0E1]

01:24 PM on 05/20/2011

We get it, you LOVE your xbox... now stop attacking Sony and let us back on.

[Highlulu]

12:46 PM on 05/20/2011

so... am i the only one that is starting to feel bad for their IT staff? as an IT professional, this kind of thing is like a worst possible nightmare.

[FBuchan]

07:56 AM on 05/21/2011

Isn't that basically like feeling bad for someone who tries to sail around the world in a rubber dingy with a hole in it, armed with a bicycle pump? Really, they created their own grief here by not doing even a small shred of the job right to start with. I'll reserve my sympathy for folks who don't arrange for the creation of their own problems.

[MikeyJaii]

12:15 PM on 05/20/2011

Then bam! They get hacked again.

[martincl]

04:22 PM on 05/20/2011

Then Bam! Right in the kisser!

[mastermike14]

12:18 PM on 05/21/2011

POW! Right in the kisser!

[bsgraves1]

11:58 AM on 05/20/2011

They're done for if they don't handle this situation...As long as Microsoft doesn't get hacked, I'll be good. I don't have a PS3 but I really wouldn't consider getting one anymore.

[JoseThePlumber]

12:28 PM on 05/20/2011

Actually, XBox360 is the easiest console to modify. The XboxLive online community was rampant with modded systems allowing the players to unlock certain features giving them an upperhand on gameplay performance. MS responded by only blocking the gamer's account and software updates. Sony is actually suing the original individuals or "hackers" who modified the system they purchased with their own money. This pissed off an entire community of gamers and techies. They have responded.

[PhillyKing]

01:58 PM on 05/20/2011

i was considering getting a used 1 just for GOW and Uncharted, cause they're not on 360... but now i'm in a conundrum... they're probably cheaper now because some feel slighted and are abandoning their consoles, but at the same time, i'm not sure i want to wander into this mess atm... on another note though, 360 is getting an update that may brick ur console, but M$ said they'll replace any bricked ones :)

[Todd Buffington]

03:22 PM on 05/20/2011

Just get it. Those are amazing games and deserved to be played. You don't HAVE to have a PSN account to play them.

[Scott Kane]

08:26 PM on 05/20/2011

Just get one. If you're worried don't enter your credit information and don't use a password for PSN that's one you commonly use for other applications. You aren't required to give Sony a shred of your financial information if you don't chose to do so. In fact you could add in completely bogus information and still be able to play online.

[Muhd Hanis]

11:15 AM on 05/20/2011

Sony should not make this happen,their reputation will going down if this continues

[Dub Sack]

11:14 AM on 05/20/2011

$1,225 worth of PSN points? it seems pointless (haha) to take that and not actual money... Nerds ha