Sony hack: 25 million more gamers' details stolen
Sony has admitted that a further 25 million customers have had their personal details stolen by hackers in a second massive breach of security.
The beleaguered tech giant said the names, home and email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and login details of 24.6 million PC gamers using its Sony Online Entertainment service had been stolen.
It also said that 10,700 direct debit records of customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain may have been taken from an "outdated database".
The outdated information contained credit card numbers, debit card numbers and expiration dates, but not the 3-digit security code on the back of credit cards.
Direct debit records included bank account numbers, customer names, account names and customer addresses.
The latest admission compounds the gloom for Sony, which last week announced that the personal details of its 77 million Playstation Network customers had been stolen.
Sony said the newly-announced break-in had actually occurred a day earlier than the PlayStation hack between April 17 to 19. It discovered the second breach while reviewing the intrustion to its Playstation Network.
"We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company, but on May 1 we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen and we are notifying you as soon as possible," Sony told its customers.
It said the Sony Online Entertainment Service, where users play popular games including EverQuest, Free Realms and DC Universe Online, had been temporarily shut down.