China-based Sony Server Hacked; 400 Names and E-mail Addresses Leaked

Sony said at least one of its servers operated by a third-party Chinese company was hacked into and that some user details, but no banking info, was leaked, as reported by itworld. Asian customers of Sony Mobile Communications appear to have been the victims of this sensitive data snatch.

The 400 illegally collected usernames, e-mail addresses and passwords were disclosed under the form of a Pastebin dump created by hacktivist group NullCrew. On September 3, NullCrew had posted a Twitter message claiming to have seized control of eight Sonymobile.com servers, according to a zdnet report. The corresponding Pastebin dump was also made public on that day.

“Sony, we are dearly disappointed in your security. This is just one of eight Sony servers that we have control of. Maybe, just maybe considering IP addresses are available. Maybe, just maybe it’s the fact that not even your customers can trust you. Or maybe, just maybe the fact that you cannot do anything correct technologically,” read the intro to the list of data extracted from the allegedly compromised server.

At least one day evidently passed before the company found out about and started investigating this incident. “We became aware of the incident late last night or early this morning [i.e. Wednesday, September 5],” said Hiroshi Okubo, Sony spokesperson, as quoted by itworld.

The company has said that none of the servers it operates itself have been affected by the breach.