Sony Online Entertainment offered more details on how it will compensate customers affected by the three-week-long outage of the PC and console gaming network and Sony Chairman Howard Stringer apologized and offered U.S. users of its PlayStation Network and Qriocity online services a year of free identity-theft protection after the system was crippled by hackers.Japan’s biggest consumer-electronics exporter will offer a $1 million insurance policy per user, covering legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages that occur after the data theft, Sony said in a blog post.The announcement comes after last month’s hacking of Sony‘s online entertainment and games platforms, when the Tokyo company was criticized by U.S. lawmakers for not informing users of the breach quickly enough.Sony stock fell to its lowest in a week in Tokyo on Friday after Sony increased the total number of accounts affected to 101.6 million.“This is an unprecedented case of information theft, in terms of the number of accounts involved,” said Nobuo Kurahashi, an analyst at Mizuho Financial Group in Tokyo. “There are lots of uncertainties, including lawsuits, making it difficult to estimate the company’s overall expense.”

Sony didn’t say whether the program will cover identity theft that isn’t related to the mid-April breach of the PlayStation and Qriocity networks, which affected 77 million accounts. Some 24.6 million users of the Sony Online Entertainment platform were also affected, the company said.”I know this is a frustrating time for all of you,” Stringer said in the blog post. “Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyberattack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it.”Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s executive deputy president in charge of consumer products and network services, apologized May 1 for the breach and said the company aims to restore the online gaming center by the end of the month after upgrading security.Legal and technology costs are likely to increase because of the incident, further hurting Sony’s credit profile, Moody’s Japan K.K. said in a statement May 2. Sony has an A3 rating at Moody’s with a ‘stable’ outlook.Sony also instituted a “Welcome Back” program to encourage its customers to return to the PSN whenever it does come back online. In addition to free identity theft monitoring through Debix that PSN and Qriocity customers can enroll in for free, Sony says it will offer free downloads and one month of free PlayStation Plus service for 30 days. Current Music Unlimited by Qriocity subscribers will get 30 days of free service.

The company said last week it does not know who orchestrated what it is calling a well-planned “sophisticated” cyberattack. It has pointed to the hacker group Anonymous based on a file it found planted on its Sony Online servers labeled “Anonymous,” with a fragment of the group’s tagline “We are Legion.” But the group has denied it orchestrated the event.While Sony investigates the attacks on Sony Online and PSN and rebuilds their security, some third parties that offer services via PSN affected by the outage are also offering discounts as compensation to their customers.Major League Baseball has sent its MLB.TV customers an e-mail each week the outage has continued notifying customers they’ll receive a US$5 refund. MLB.TV customers pay for access to baseball games in packages starting at US$100 that they can watch via the Web, some smartphones and set-top boxes, the iPad and game consoles like the PlayStation 3.

Thanks: (1) , (2)

Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com