Sony Online Entertainment suffers massive hack

Sony's online woes deepen this week with the revelation that alongside the PlayStation Network the Sony Online Entertainment PC games network was also compromised by hackers.

Interestingly, Sony has revealed that the SOE was actually hacked into before the PSN but the company did not believe any data had been stolen.

Data has been taken, though, with 24.6 million customers' details now in the hands of hackers.

"We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company, but on 1 May we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen and we are notifying you as soon as possible," said a spokesperson to SOE customers.

Card details taken

The total number of accounts obtained by hackers is now over 100 million, with debit card information of 10,700 customers in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany stolen. There was also card details of a further 12,700 'non-US' customers taken.

Although the details were from a database dating back to 2007, Sony felt the need to "temporarily suspend" the SOE service, taking games like DC Universe offline.

On the company's website SOE.com, a statement read: "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."

A press released was also issued which was in the same vein as the PSN release, telling SOE users to be vigilant of email, telephone, and postal mail scams and keep checking online bank statements.

It is also asking users to change all passwords that may be the same as their Sony accounts.

There's still no re-launch date for the PSN (or the SOE) but Sony will want to get the services back on as soon as possible, considering the PlayStation Network has been offline since 20 April.