I’ve been watching this story evolve over the past week, and decided to warn our gamer friends about this as a Community service. I don’t know if many or, for that matter any of you folks have been impacted by this, but safe is better than sorry, and “Thou shalt not stand idly by.” seem to apply here.

Sony confirmed this penetration on Tuesday.

If you are part of Playstation Network and/or Qriocity, you should be receiving an email from Sony confirming the penetration.

"The email will tell subscribers that Sony has turned off the PlayStation Network and Qriocity cloud-music service, engaged an outside security firm and "taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information", per Mark Hachman at PC Magazine.

"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained," the email states. "If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained.

While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained." – Sony Spokesman

This is important:

1. Disregard any email purporting to be from Sony or any agent of Sony asking for personal or financial details.

2. You might want to set up a new identity in your email account and inform your friends of it, and shut down the old account.

3. You might want to change your Credit/Debit Card number and a simple explanation to the Credit/Debit Card Company as to why should suffice and they should be glad to help you do this. They are as interested as you in preventing fraud and abuse.

I hope you aren’t victimized by all this, but there are positive steps you can take to prevent tremendous damage to your finances and Identity.

Hope this helps!