Breach is ‘severe’ compromise

THE Sony Playstation network breach is a pretty severe compromise because of both the number of users affected and the level of information that has been accessed by hackers.

The extent of the information that has been compromised leaves most of these users wide open to identity theft. It is a virtual certainty that large numbers of these users will have used the same email addresses and passwords for all of their online identity. This dangerous but widespread practice means whoever did this has the potential to hack into multiple personal accounts of people affected.

Clearly, the most attractive targets are those users who used the same email address and password for high-value accounts, such as PayPal. A key to good internet security is to use separate, hard-to-guess “strong” passwords for any account that facilitates access to financial transactions. Anyone who thinks they may have been affected should change all such passwords immediately.