Sony’s PlayStation Network is reported to have 70 million registered users worldwide. On May 2, 2011, Sony issued a statement that 12,700 credit cards and 24.6 million user accounts were compromised. The stolen data included names, addresses, dates of birth, passwords, security questions and answers and credit card information.
This compromise is said to be one of the largest and most high-profile online data thefts to date. The theft raised major concerns in the industry because many people use the same password for all of their online services. In addition to Sony, online retailer Play.com in March of this year informed customers that someone or some group hacked into its computer systems and stole e-mails and personal information. In January, cosmetics company Lush admitted that credit card data belonging to customers had been stolen.