Sony Corp. apologizes, offers year of free identity

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer apologized and offered U.S. customers of PlayStation Network and Qriocity online entertainment 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 data is stolen, Sony said in a blog post. Austin, Texas-based Debix Inc. was hired to provide the monitoring service and similar programs for users in other countries are also being considered, it said.

The announcement follows last month's hacking of Sony's online entertainment and games platforms when the Tokyo-based company was criticized by U.S. lawmakers for not informing users of the breach quick enough. The shares slumped to their lowest level in seven weeks in Tokyo today after Sony increased the total number of accounts that were comprised to 101.6 million for the services that have remained shut for two weeks.

"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 Inc. in Tokyo. "There are lots of uncertainties including lawsuits, making it difficult to estimate the company's overall expense."

U.S. subscribers have until June 18 to sign up for Debix's AllClear ID Plus protection program, said Patrick Seybold, a Sony spokesman for the video-games unit, Bloomberg reported.

According to a previous statement posted to the Sony PSN blog on April 30, they initially expected to “have some services up and running within a week from yesterday,” which could indicate a return on May 5.