PlayStation Breach good news: credit card info encrypted

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 28 April 2011 11:34

Opinion and Analysis

One Aussie believes he has lost $2000 in the Sony PlayStation Network breach, his credit card apparently compromised.  Is he just the tip of a 75 million plus user iceberg?  Not according to recent information coming out of Sony.

Sony had a security breach, losing personal data details of over 75 million users of the PlayStation Network, the online network used by PlayStation 3 owners for multiplayer gaming, movie downloads and more.

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia responded to iTWire regarding the breach and some limited advice for those fearful of having been compromised.  But the question about credit card details and just what leaked information was 'in the clear' was left hanging.

Over at Gamepron.com there is a report of Rory Spreckley, who alleges his credit card, the same one he uses on the PlayStation Network, has had some dubious transactions applied since the breach.

'I logged into my bank account just to check everything was OK and I found out there was some just over $2,000 in charges which I didn't personally accrue.' Spreckley claims 'There was a number of early transactions on the 23rd of amounts under $1, which they say is the usual kind of test run that fraudsters do and then there's been a number of transactions of larger amounts, including domestic flights within Australia, bookings at Best Westerns [hotels] and what not.'

Not exactly firm evidence, but worrying.  Over at the official PlayStation blog however, a recent post by Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media at Sony, Patrick Seybold seems to allay some fears.

Seybold answers some of the burning questions including the simple query of just how credit card information was stored in the network.

Check Page 2 for Seybold's Q&A