Sony Data Breach

What happened

In 2011, Sony suffered breach after breach after breach — it was a very bad year for them. The breaches spanned various areas of the business ranging from the PlayStation network all the way through to the motion picture arm, Sony Pictures. A SQL Injection vulnerability in sonypictures.com lead to tens of thousands of accounts across multiple systems being exposed complete with plain text passwords.

Exposed data

Recommended actions

• Change your Sony password immediately, and update it anywhere you reused the same password.
• Enable two-factor authentication on the affected account and on your critical services (email, banking).
• Watch for targeted phishing emails referencing Sony — attackers weaponise breach data quickly.
• Stay alert for smishing (SMS phishing) and SIM-swap attempts using your phone number.
• Exposed identity data raises identity-theft risk — consider credit monitoring or a credit freeze.