Sony affiliated sites breached in Canada

Sony Corp, reeling from the second-largest online data breach in US history, shut down some Internet services in Canada, Thailand and Indonesia after detecting unauthorised intrusions.

Intruders stole the names and e-mail addresses of about 2,000 customers at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB’s Canadian website, while a site in Thailand may have been modified to help send fraudulent e-mails, spokesman Atsuo Omagari said. The company also suspended a site in Indonesia because of a suspected attack and found Web codes for the Japanese music unit were stolen, he said.

The incidents fuel investor concerns over Sony’s online security after hackers stole data from possibly more than 100 million user accounts last month, crippling its PlayStation Network and costing the company an estimated 14 billion yen ($171 million). The new intrusions indicate Sony is failing to contain the situation, analysts including Nobuo Kurahashi said.

“This is getting very serious,” said Kurahashi, who has a “neutral plus” rating on Sony at Mizuho Financial Group Inc in Tokyo. “What looked like a game-related attack in the US is spreading to other businesses such as music and to all over the world. It may take significantly longer than expected for Sony to get over this.”

Hacking Toll
Sony fell 1.5 per cent to close at 2,236 yen in Tokyo trading, extending its loss this year to 24 per cent, triple the drop by Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.