Sony is currently investigating claims that it was hacked by a ransomware group, with the group threatening to sell its data by Thursday of this week. Although it is still unclear whether the hack has actually taken place, PlayStation fans are worried that their personal data may have been caught up in the leak and could be sold to malicious parties. The hackers claim to have breached “all” of Sony’s systems, which could potentially result in severe damage.
Sony has stated that it is currently investigating the situation and has no further comment at this time. Given the severity of the matter, the company is expected to keep quiet until the investigation is complete and the potential damage has been assessed. Many fans online are concerned about the ramifications of this hack and are wondering if they should change their personal details on their PlayStation accounts.
If the hack is legitimate, players should update any other services that use the same email and password as their PSN account. This could go a long way in containing the breach if we are looking at the worst-case scenario. However, there is a glimmer of hope in this story, as some doubt that the hack is that wide-reaching or even happened at all.
The evidence provided by the ransomware group to prove that it had “all” of Sony’s data was relatively small, not enough to account for all of the company’s data. This has led some to doubt that we are looking at a situation like the infamous PlayStation Network outage in 2011, where personal information on 77 million users was accessed. This led to $171 million in costs for Sony and kept PSN down for almost a month.
Sony would be eager to avoid this happening again, due to both the financial and reputational cost of losing so much data twice. It is possible that the hack is a bluff or at least a far more limited breach than the hackers are letting on, so it is very possible that Sony will return with good news once its investigation is complete.
