Thursday April 28 2011 by Julie Carpenter
The personal details of millions of people have been stolen by cyber criminals, revealed software giant Sony this week. So how at risk are you and what’s the best way to protect yourself?
Sony “strongly recommend” several actions: If you use your PlayStation password as your password for other unrelated services or accounts, change them. When the PlayStation Network is fully restored (it is still down), change this password too.
Sony is also warning customers to be aware of criminals pretending to be from their bank or other companies and asking for sensitive information, attempting to trick people into handing over even more personal information. “We encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone and postal mail scams that ask for personal and sensitive information,” says Sony.
To guard against credit card fraud, the company urges people to “remain vigilant” and keep an eye on their statements.
How has this happened?
Good question. This is a massive security breach and you would expect a company the size of Sony to have tough systems in place to prevent an event such as this happening. The company is still working on the problem, saying: “We are currently investigating to determine the cause of this outage and are working to restore and maintain the services.”
Sony is also using the PSN’s downtime to strengthen its security systems and network infrastructure so that this doesn’t happen again.
Why does computer hacking happen?
There appears to have been a shift away from hackers doing it for the thrill or the fame and towards doing it for profit. In many cases criminals will commit identity theft then either use the information themselves or sell it to others. It is estimated that every year in the UK alone, such fraud costs more than £2.7billion and affects more than 1.8 million people.
Criminals steal personal information then pretend to be you. According to identitytheft.org.uk, once a hacker has your information, they could apply for a credit card in your name, open a bank or building society account in your name, apply for other financial services in your name and run up debts (eg, use your credit/debit card details to make purchases) or obtain a loan in your name.
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