WASHINGTON — The data breach that hit Sony’s PlayStation Network resulted from a “very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber-attack designed to steal personal and credit-card information for illegal purposes,” a Sony executive said.
In a letter to members of the House Commerce Committee released Wednesday, Kazuo Hirai, chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC, defended the company’s handling of the breach.
Sony first disclosed the attack last week and said it may have compromised credit-card data, e-mail addresses and other personal information from 77 million user accounts. On Monday, Sony said data from an additional 24.6 million online gaming accounts also may have been stolen.
The company has shut down the affected systems while it investigates the attacks and beefs up security.
Hirai said Sony is working “around the clock to get the systems back up and to make sure all our customers are informed of the data breach and our responses to it.” Addressing criticism that the company waited too long to inform customers, Hirai said Sony waited until it had a solid understanding and confirmation of the extent of the attack and its implications.
“Throughout the process, Sony Network Entertainment America was very concerned that announcing partial or tentative information to consumers could cause confusion and lead them to take unnecessary actions if the information was not fully corroborated by forensic evidence,” he wrote.
