Sony was victim of sophisticated cyber-attack

WASHINGTON – The data breach that hit Sony's PlayStation Network resulted from a "very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber-attack designed to steal personal and credit card information for illegal purposes," a Sony executive said. Sony first disclosed the attack last week and said it may have compromised credit card data, email addresses and other personal information from 77 million user accounts. On Monday, Sony said data from an additional 24.6 million online gaming accounts also may have been stolen. The company has shut down the affected systems while it investigates the attacks and beefs up security.