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Sony shares fall 2.3% after security breach Sony delays PlayStation relaunch
(3 days later)
Sony shares ended lower as Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index resumed trade after the Golden Week holiday. Sony has delayed the relaunch of its online PlayStation video game network.
The Japanese consumer electronics company fell as much as 4% in early trade, before ending 2.3% weaker. It had previously said the network would resume normal operations by the weekend.
The company admitted on 3 May that another 25 million users' data had been stolen in a second security breach. Sony recently suffered a huge security breach with the theft of personal data from 100m online accounts.
Sony had previously said a security breach of its PlayStation Network had lead to 77 million users' data being stolen. "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing," Sony said in a blog.
Sony boss Howard Stringer apologised to users "for the inconvenience and concern caused". "We won't restore the services until we can test the system's strength in these respects."
"I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you," Mr Stringer said href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/05/a-letter-from-howard-stringer/" >in a statement on Sony's US PlayStation website. The security breach was first discovered on 20 April.
He added there was no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information had been misused. Many users have been upset about the company taking two days after discovering the theft before contacting the police and almost a week to inform those people affected.
Mr Stringer said Sony would restore online game services in the coming days, without specifying a date. Data posted
Ahead of Mr Stringer's statement some analysts had said security worries could hurt future sales and growth prospects. Also over the weekend, Sony admitted that it had found some 2,500 names and partial mailing addresses of customers posted by hackers on a website.
"There is a real concern that trust in Sony's business will decline," wrote Kota Ezawa from Citigroup in Japan in a note. Sony said it immediately took down the site, and were removing any residual links to the list.
"The network business itself still only makes a small direct contribution to earnings, but we see a potential drop in hardware sales as a concern." "The website was out-of-date and inactive when discovered as part of the continued attacks on Sony," it said in a statement.
Blame wrangle The data belonged mostly to US customers who took part in a competition in 2001.
Sony has blamed an online vigilante group, Anonymous, saying a hacker had gained access to the personal data of more than 100 million online gamers. Last week, in a bid to reassure Sony's customers and regain their trust, Chief Executive Howard Stringer said that "to date, there is no confirmed evidence any credit card or personal information has been misused, and we continue to monitor the situation closely."
Anonymous has denied being involved in the data theft. In a blog post on the PlayStation website, he wrote that the company was working on heightening security measures to "protect your information better than ever".
"Let's be clear, we are legion, but it wasn't us. You are incompetent Sony," the group said on its website on Thursday. He also offered compensation to US PlayStation Network and Qriocity users in the form of a year-long free enrollment in an identity protection programme.
Sony said on Sunday it had found a file on one of its servers labelled Anonymous and containing the phrase "We are legion", which is used by the group. The programme includes a $1m (£608,000) identity theft insurance policy for each user, should they become victims of any future cyber-attacks.
The company also said it was looking to its insurers to help pay for costs associated with the data breach.
It did not specify the amount, but some experts place the total payout in the billions of dollars.