Sony ISP Hacked, Customer Points Stolen

Sony has been hacked yet again – this time its Japanese subsidiary ISP So-net has been robbed by hackers, with attackers successfully stealing loyalty points from customers.

So-net reported that their points system was hacked by an unknown third party who had made thousands of unauthorised accesses prior to the incident coming to light.

Absolute damages where relatively limited – 128 customers had loyalty points (redeemable for the usual junk) stolen, with total equivalent losses amounting to approximately ¥100,000.

In addition to the points theft, hackers also gained access to the email of a further 90 customers.

The incident only came to light after Sony received numerous complaints from customers discovering that their points were mysteriously lowering of their own accord.

So-net issued the usual grovelling apology and promises of enhanced security measures in future.

Sony claims the attack is unrelated to the PSN hacks, but does not deny the possibility that the leaked account data could have been used in the So-net hack.

The scope of the attack is of course fairly minor (though since So-net is a small domestic Japanese ISP, the numbers may not be quite as insignificant as they at first appear), although this is by now hardly the point.

The ISP also came under criticism for the way it made the announcement – alone amongst its press releases, the apology for the breach was not published as normal text, but instead as a gif image of the text nestled in the page, an exceptionally slimy PR/SEO tactic designed to stop the document showing up in search engines or being easily quotable.

After this was widely reported, the page mysteriously turned into normal text, but the incriminating gif still remains on their servers as of writing.