Hackers hit Sony sites raising more security issues
A man walks past a Sony logo in front of an electronic shop in Tokyo May 3, 2011. Reuters

Since the cyber attack that crippled Sony's PlayStation Network last month, two other major game developers have since fallen victim to similar attacks.

The PSN outage began last month when tech giant Sony's PSN fell victim to a coordinated cyber assault. The attack left as many as 100 million user's account and billing information compromised.

As a consequence, despite offering a slew of free gifts as well as a dedicated 12 month protection service for all affected customers, Sony has still struggled to win back public trust.

Since the attack both Square Enix and Codemasters have suffered similar attacks.

The first was done to Japanese games developer Square Enix, who are responsible for creating the Final Fantasy and Kingdom of Hearts franchises.

The hack reportedly focused on two of the company's websites. After the attack the company confirmed that the hackers had successfully stolen 25,000 customer's email addresses. An additional 350 c.v.'s of individuals applying for work at the company's Canadian office were also confirmed as compromised.

The second successful attack since the PSN's outage focused on the U.K. based games publisher Codemasters.
The attack was confirmed by the company yesterday evening and was reported as happening on Friday 20 May. Like the attack against Square Enix, it appears that the company's website was the main target.

Like the previous attacks, the hackers seemed to was access to user's email, password and account information.

Eager to avoid the same public backlash Sony has suffered, both companies quickly issued apologies to the general public and stated that improved security measures had already been improved.

The two attacks have already gotten many games developers and analysts concerned about the possibility of yet more attacks on the already wounded industry.

In a statement issued after the attack Codemasters representatives commented, "Our online team take security of user data very seriously and we are reviewing all of our websites and systems to ensure we are as safe as possible, especially as many games companies have been popular targets for this sort of activity recently."

Whether these two recent attacks do demonstrate the start of a growing trend remains to be seen. But, with many companies already weakened as a result of the revenue lost through the PSN disaster, more and more companies may soon find themselves the target of opportunistic hackers.

Sony