ony begins restoring PlayStation Network

Sony said it would restore core functions of its PlayStation Network and
other online services beginning on Sunday, three weeks after a hacker
infiltrated a customer database containing personal information on tens of
millions of people.

The Japanese technology group said PSN users in the US, Europe and other
regions would be able to access their accounts and play online games with
networked PlayStation3 consoles, the first steps in a phased restoration of
services that it hopes to complete by May 31.

Partial restoration of Sony's Music Unlimited music streaming service and
Sony Online Entertainment, a separate internet-based gaming platform, were
also planned for Sunday.

Sony had initially hoped to restore the 77m-member PlayStation Network a
week ago, but efforts to improve its security in the wake of the hacker
attack took longer than expected. The company has added new firewalls,
encryption and monitoring systems and plans to move the entire customer
database to a new location with more secure servers.

The still unidentified hacker gained access to the names, addresses and
network passwords of all PSN users. Credit card information for about 10m
users was also stored on the database, though it remains uncertain whether
the hacker was able to penetrate deeply enough to steal it.

Sony said it had appointed Fumiaki Sakai, president of Sony Global
Solutions, a business technology unit of the Sony group, as acting chief
information security officer (CISO) of the PlayStation division. Sony
created the new CISO role as one of its responses to the hacker attack.