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Sony last night confessed that more customer data has been hacked, with the personal sensitive information of some 24.6 million SOE users exposed.
The total number of compromised Sony customer profiles has now reached over 100 million.
A new mass-email alert will be sent to 24.6 million Sony Online Entertainment customers, who play games such as Everquest and DC Universe Online.
The 24.6 million user number is unconfirmed, though cited in a Reuters report.
One individual has also accessed an outdated Sony database from 2007, the copany admitted.
This contains around 12,700 credit card numbers and expiration dates, and about 10,700 direct debit records which show account details.
The company provided no explanation on why it had kept an “outdated” server accessible.
Another seperate server, which contains up-to-date credit card data, has not been compromised, Sony added.
All Sony Online Entertainment games have been switched off.
This is a separate incident to the PlayStation Network data breach, which had occurred April 17-19; in fact days after the Sony Online Entertainment hack.
It has taken over two weeks for the company to notice that Sony Online Entertainment servers had been hacked.
Last week the company assured that the Sony Online Entertainment information had not been compromised.
Sony has now apologised for getting its information wrong.
It will now send an email to warn users that their personal details have come under the reach of an unauthorised user.
Names, passwords, locations, emails and security answers have again been exposed. Sony is urging its customers to remain vigilant.
Timeline of mishaps
The hack is another devastating embarrassment for Sony, which last week discovered that the personal sensitive details of a 77 million PlayStation Network users had been compromised.
Sony Online Entertainment’s data breach occurred over two weeks ago, between April 16th and 17th, Sony said.
Several days later, Sony Online Entertainment interrupted its services to investigate the hack.
Yet on Wednesday, April 27th, Sony Online Entertainment customers were assured that no hack had occurred. Sony, now realising its extraordinary oversight, has apologised.
