Sony to restore PSN, Qriocity services
Sony is looking to fully restore its PlayStation Network (PSN) and Qriocity services on Jul. 6 after attacks in April brought down its online games and music offerings, according to a news report.
News wire Reuters on Monday reported that the Japanese consumer giant is looking to restore all PSN and Qriocity services in Japan, marking the resumption of all network services worldwide which went down following attacks by hackers and resulted in millions of customers' data being compromised.
Sony on Apr. 26 revealed that its PSN and Qriocity networks were breached by hackers between Apr. 17 and 19, compromising over 70 million customers' personal information, according to a report by ZDNet Asia's sister site, CNET News. Stolen data included names, addresses, e-mail addresses, birthdays, PSN and Qriocity passwords, and usernames.
No one claimed credit for the initial attacks on PSN and Qriocity, with the Anonymous hacker group distancing itself from claims that the breaches were part of its earlier efforts which brought down Sony's Web sites.
On Jun. 3, though, the Spanish police apprehended three suspects who were thought to be involved in the PSN and Qriocity attacks and said to be associated with Anonymous.
In the meantime, another hacker group, the Lulzsec, continued to target Sony with further network intrusions, listing up to 16 attacks which compromised source codes from the Sony Computer Entertainment Developer Network and brought down sites such as Sony Pictures Russia and Sony Music Brazil, among others.
The Lulzsec group last week announced it was disbanding after a 50-day cybercrime spree.
In a May report by Computerworld, Sony estimated that the spate of attacks on PSN would cost the company US$170 million this financial year.