“They indicated that they’re worried about it, which is probably a very strong indication that everything was stolen,” he said.
If the intruder successfully stole credit card data, the heist would rank among the biggest known thefts of financial data.
Recent major hacks included some 130 million card numbers stolen from payment processor Heartland Payment Systems. As many as 100 million accounts were lifted in a break-in at TJX Cos., the chain that owns discount retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, and some 4.2 million card numbers were stolen from East Coast grocery chain Hannaford Bros. Those attacks allegedly involved a single person: Albert Gonzalez, a Miami hacker who was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison for the attacks.
The Ponemon Institute, a data-security research firm, estimated that the cost of a data breach involving a malicious or criminal act averaged $318 per compromised record in 2010, up 48 percent from the year earlier.
That could pin the potential cost of the PlayStation breach at more than $24 billion.
Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, a security training organization, said that even if credit numbers weren’t stolen, knowing someone’s name, eMail address, and which games he or she likes can lead to expertly crafted scam eMails. Knowing billing histories can be even more harmful, because they can identify big spenders.
“If you know someone’s spent a lot on gaming, they could be a spectacular target,” he said.
The PlayStation break-in serves as a reminder of the danger of large-scale breaches, even as hackers gravitate toward smaller attacks that target specific, valuable data and are harder to detect.
Some PlayStation users appeared to shrug off the danger although they were taking precautions.
Joshua Delgado, a 36-year-old self-employed gamer in Moreno Valley, Calif., said he now wants to check to see if the credit card he registered on the network was one that had recently expired or not. For now, he’s no longer playing the multiplayer shooter game, “MAG,” nor is he renting movies over the system any more.
“There are worse things that are going on in the world—it’s a game,” he said. “But I’m disappointed that they weren’t more prepared for something like this.”
The theft of credit card numbers has taken on a routine feel, even though instances of mega-breaches have been declining.
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