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Hackers post limited stolen Sony info - Report

Reuters reports info from 2,500 2001 sweepstakes entrants was briefly posted on "outdated" website Thursday before being taken down.

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On Friday, GameSpot sister site CNET reported that a new cyberattack on Sony might be in the offing. The plotters of the new operation were reportedly planning to release some of the information stolen from 77 million PlayStation Network accounts during the recent data breach. This could potentially include names, addresses, and even credit card numbers, a source told CNET.

The leak of Sony customer info was very limited.
The leak of Sony customer info was very limited.

Now, Reuters is reporting that on Thursday, some unidentified hackers did in fact post stolen Sony customer information--albeit on a very small scale. According to the news service, cybercriminals posted the names and partial addresses of 2,500 winners of a Sony product sweepstakes from 2001. Just three unconfirmed e-mail addresses were exposed as a result. In addition, the information did not contain sensitive details, such as credit card information, and it was unclear if it was even related to the PSN attack.

Further, the information was posted on an inactive website and was reportedly quickly removed by Sony. "The website was out of date and inactive when discovered as part of the continued attacks on Sony," a company rep told Reuters. The culprits were also unidentified, although elements of the "hacktivist" collective Anonymous have been accused of being involved in the PSN attack.

While apparently minor, the data posting comes at a sensitive time for Sony, as the company just announced a delay in the PSN coming back online. On Thursday, Sony Corp. CEO Sir Howard Stringer sent out a personal apology to everyone inconvenienced by the PSN outage and announced an offer for complimentary identity-theft insurance and protection services.

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