[Update] Sony Online Entertainment admits that the personal information of over 24 million SOE accounts have been compromised. Along with personal information, some 12,000+ accounts have had credit card information stolen. SOE states that the "intrusion" happened some time between April 16th and the 17th, roughly the same time as criminals accessed the PlayStation Network.
[Update 2] SOE claims that the credit card data that was stolen comes from an old, outdated database from 2007. This brings the chance for unauthorized credit charges to a minimum, as most credit cards would have expired within that long of a period. However, the personal information, passwords and login information of over 24 million users are still in the hands of criminals.
[Original Story] This week, the PlayStation Network is set to return, and peace can be restored to PS3 owners everywhere as they can finally get back to gaming online. But just as one branch of Sony starts to get their act together, another wing of Sony goes down thanks to… fucking hackers.
Sony Online Entertainment, responsible for a number of MMOs and web games, has taken down their Station.com website and suspended game services to investigate an "intrusion":
We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily,
In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately.
SOE had previously stated that their customer information was unaffected by the recent PlayStation Network data breach, but that obviously was not the case.
SOE will be providing an update later today. We'll update this article when they do.
