TOKYO / NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sony Corp. said it will begin to restore its PlayStation network of video games, the Japan and elsewhere in Asia on Saturday more than a month after a violation of a massive security leak personal details of tens of millions of accounts.
The Japanese electronics and entertainment giant also said Friday he plans to testify before U.S. lawmakers at a hearing on the security of the data in Washington on June 2 to examine what is considered the largest breach of Internet security in history.
The company under fire since consulted pirates of personal information on accounts for 77 million of PlayStation Network and Qriocity - of which 90% are in North America and Europe - and stole credit card information.
Video game enthusiasts and security experts both have criticized Sony for the treatment of the incident, which led to prosecutions and cast a shadow over its plans to combine the strengths of its products, materials and content via online services.
The company has apologized to customers of the blackout and said that a range of new security measures had been introduced. Include a better early warning system that could alert the company on the breaches.
In a new letter sent to U.S. legislators later in the evening of Thursday, Sony said it added more than firewalls and introduced policy changes and thorough testing of its systems. But Sony has warned that the new measures might not be enough to fully ensure its networks.
Sony "no security system is absolutely foolproof, and changing conditions in the future can secure a currently secure environment less," said the letter signed by Kazuo Hirai, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment, society games unit.
Ministry of commerce of the Japan ordered unity games Friday to adopt measures to improve the management and security of personal information, result of a breach of data.
"Considering the content and the volume of the information disclosed, it is an extremely serious incident, and it is really regrettable that it has occurred and takes considerable time to warn users and the Ministry," the Department said in a statement.
Sony said it will offer a new identity protection service to customers in Asia.
COUNTING THE COSTS
Thursday, Sony said was to keep to its objective of restoring all PlayStation Network services before the end of may, with any delay beyond that not likely to be more than a few days.
He said he expected that piracy to drag to the lower operating profit by 14 billion yen (172 million dollars) for the financial year, including costs to strengthen security measures.
Shares of Sony fell by 3.2% before the announcement on the restart, with analysts forecast a net profit of $ 975 million concerned Sony this year business may not meet expectations. ADR at the United States shares were little more than 1% in afternoon trade at the beginning.
Some users have said that the prolonged outage has prompted to compete with games Xbox Live of Microsoft Corp. service.
Sony attack is the highest profile of a series that have affected large business recently, fueling doubts about the security of cloud computing services.
Sony has discovered an unusual activity on its PlayStation Network, which allows owners of game console downloadable games, chat with friends and stand their skills against rivals, on 19 April.
Close the network and the service of film, frustrating many users and its music of qriocity online, it took almost a week before alert users to the extent of the leak of security.
The company has discovered more later a separate service online games had also been penetrated, allowing access to another user of 25 million accounts.
(Yen Japanese $1 = 81.345)
(Reported by Isabel Reynolds and Liana b. Baker; written by Anshuman Daga; editing by Lincoln feast and Andre Grenon)
