PSN outage: credit-card compromise 'uncertain'

PC World reports that Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment, contends that the company has "not yet determined" if users' credit-card information has been compromised during the current PlayStation Network outage.

The outage is now in its fifth day, and Sony has only recently admitted that the downtime is a result of "external intrusion". It's speculated that notorious hacker organisation Anonymous is behind the outage, which has affected more than 75 million users. With the PlayStation Network down, users are unable to engage in online multiplayer games (such as the recently released Portal 2), access the PlayStation Store or other online services such as Mubi and Qriocity.

Aside from the vague comments from Fukuoka, Sony has remained unusually silent on the outage, refusing to elaborate further on the details of the alleged intrusion.

Game Console has reached out to New Zealand PR representatives for Sony Computer Entertainment for comment and awaits a response.

UPDATE - 11.25am: Sony has responded with the following official statement:

"We sincerely regret that PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have been suspended, and we are working around the clock to bring them both back online. Our efforts to resolve this matter involve re-building our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure. Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security. We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project. We will continue to give you updates as they become available."