Sony PlayStation Network
In 2011, attacks were made against Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN) and Qriocity services, which are now part of the Sony Entertainment Network. Over 100 million user details, including names, residences, birthdates, usernames, passwords, security questions, and other sensitive data, were stolen by hackers.
Even while Sony denied that it contained credit card information, they nonetheless advised users to assume that their cards had been compromised. Anger over Sony suing an American hacker who tried to reverse-engineer the PlayStation 3 to enable customers to play unofficial third-party games was the driving force behind this attack.
It's undoubtedly one of, if not the largest personal data leak in history, and the perpetrator is still a mystery. Given that one of the biggest US repositories of credit card details is Sony, this incident was also a major PR disaster for the company. Sony's cyber-security system had a comprehensive revamp as a result of the attack, which took more than three weeks to rebuild and restore.
- Year: 2011
- Damage: 100 million user details were stolen
