Sony will be giving a $1 million identity theft insurance policy to every person who was using the PlayStation Network or who was a customer of Qriocity. Sony is giving this to people for free in response to the cyber-attack that could, potentially, have given user’s personal information to an unknown hacker.
Recently, Sony was the victim of a cyber-attack by an unknown hacker, or group of hackers. Once Sony figured out that an attack had been made, it shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity possibly as a means of damage control. It is my understanding that it took Sony about a week to notify customers that a data breach had occurred.
The PlayStation Network is an online service that is run by Sony. The service allows people who own a PlayStation to use the Network to play a video game that has online capability with, (or against), other people who also use the PlayStation Network, and who own a copy of the same game. People could choose to play with their friends and family members, or can play against strangers.
The PlayStation Network also functions as a virtual storefront, where people can buy a copy of a downloadable video game that can be played on PlayStation. People can also buy movies and music through the PlayStation Network. Qriocity is also run by Sony. It is a subscription based Web service that people can use to stream music from.
People who were using either the PlayStation Network, or Qriocity, (or both), had to give Sony a certain amount of personal information in order to use these services. This would include a person’s first and last name, as well as that person’s credit card information. These are the types of information that criminals use to commit identity theft.
In other words, if you are someone who used the PlayStation Network, or Qriocity, there is the potential that you have become, (or could soon become), a victim of identity theft, thanks to the security breach at Sony, and the actions of the criminals who chose to hack Sony. To add insult to injury, the PlayStation Network is still down. This means that people who are upset about potentially being exposed to identity theft can’t even take out their frustrations through their favorite online PlayStation game at this time.
Sony has decided to give all PlayStation Network members, (who are in the United States), a year’s worth of identity theft coverage, free of charge. This coverage gives people cyber monitoring, access to what they are calling “identity restoration specialists”, and up to $1 million dollars in identity theft insurance.
Users will also get a free month of PlayStation Plus, and an extension on their subscriptions to PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited, “to make up for lost time”. There is no word on when the network will be up and running again.
Image by Michel Ngilen on Flickr