Sony faced fierce criticism on Wednesday following its disclosure that a hacker had stolen the personal data of more than 70m users of its PlayStation Network in one of the worst such online privacy breaches to date.
The Japanese group said it had lost real names, birth dates, e-mail addresses and Sony passwords in what it described as an “intrusion” nearly a week earlier. It had closed down the PlayStation Network and its smaller Qriocity media streaming service, which was also affected, but the delayed revelation drew criticism.
After hiring outside investigators, “it was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach”, Sony said late on Tuesday. “We then shared that information with our consumers and announced it publicly.”