Sony US CEO addresses PSN outage

Sony chairman and chief executive officer Howard Stringer has posted an open letter on the official PlayStation blog, apologising profusely for the outage and also reassuring readers that the network's restoration is not far away.

"I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you," begins Stringer. "Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we've all experienced and on fixing it. We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. We will settle for nothing less."

Stringer reaffirms that there is still no evidence that any of the information obtained by hackers in the breach has been misused. He also takes the opportunity to highlight the launch of a US$1 million identity-theft insurance policy for US users. According to Stringer, details will follow for affected users in other territories.

"As a company we - and I - apologise for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack," continued Stringer. "Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible."

Stringer also attempts to justify the late notification of the intrusion by once again claiming that Sony was not aware of the extent of the breach, but he also concedes that it's a "fair question".

"In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for - all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony."