[LS1Hawk]

Sony has revealed that 10 million credit card accounts may have been exposed two weeks ago when a hacker broke into the company's computers in San Diego and stole data from 77 million PlayStation Network accounts.

During a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday, Kaz Hirai, Sony's executive deputy president, offered the company's first public apology by an executive and promised to compensate customers. "We offer our sincerest apologies," Hirai said, then bowed deeply in a Japanese custom showing regret, at the news conference, a recording of which can be viewed here.

Hirai said Sony would give affected customers 30 days of free access to its Qriocity music-streaming service as well as 30 days of access to its PlayStation Plus online game service. In addition, Sony said it will provide credit card protection services for the 10 million customers whose data were compromised.

Sony last week said it had encrypted credit card data, but not other account information, including names, addresses, email addresses and birth dates.

More at link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/tech...rk-attack.html