News: Sony Online Entertainment Client Information Also Compromised

Looks like another of Sony's entertainment arm, and its clients, has fallen victim to cyber-crime. In a press release today of Sony Online Entertainment, the company has announced that during the investigations currently being conducted by Sony Corp. and Sony Computer Entertainment on the recent compromise of their systems, they have discovered that user data may also have been stolen from their system.

In the press release, SOE revealed that approximately personal information from 24.6 million accounts may have been stolen, as well as outdated database information which includes approximately 12,700 non-US credit card numbers and expiration dates (excluding security codes). The stolen information also includes 10,700 direct debit records from clients in Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain.

As a result, SOE also took steps similar to what Sony did with PSN in addressing the situation... shutting their servers down. They have also conducted reviews and some upgrading of their system's online security.

What's scary about this is the extent of the information that have been stolen in the incident. As revealed in the press release, the stolen information contains a lot more data, which also includes bank account information for the stolen debit records.

SOE is also promising a similar make good offering for its clients, including a  free 30 day subscription for their games, and a complimentary offering to protect its clients from identity theft. A make good offering is also in the pipeline for PlayStation 3 MMO (Free Realms and DC Universe Online) game subscribers.

To read the full press release, click here. If you're one of the clients affected by this another mishap, please read my earlier post regarding the PSN outage for some tips on how to protect yourself from the information compromise.

Feel free to hit the comments and let us know what you think.