Sony has hired private investigators following the theft of personal data belonging to more than 100 million online gamers.
On Tuesday the company admitted that there had been a cyber attack on the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) network in April. The network hosts popular internet games including EverQuest and Free Realms.
This news followed an announcement last week of another security breach affecting 77 million Playstation users.
Initially, Sony believed that its SOE database had not been compromised, but they have now admitted that hackers took the names, e-mail addresses and other information of up to 25 million PC and Facebook gamers. In addition, the payment details of around twenty thousand non-US customers were taken.
In a statement, Sony warned customers to be on the lookout for any contact via e-mail, telephone or post purporting to be official Sony correspondence. Such an email would be an example of 'phishing' – an attempt to acquire sensitive information via email or the internet.
The electronics giant had already apologised for the Playstation hack, and promised to help users defend themselves from cyber attack, saying:
"We will provide a complimentary offering to assist users in enrolling in identity theft protection services and/or similar programs."
Such promises haven't been enough to stop some people calling for the CEO Howard Stringer to resign. Sony's shares have dropped by 4% since mid-April.
