LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sony Corp. said Tuesday that the credit card data of PlayStation users may have been stolen in an intrusion that caused it to shut down its PlayStation Network for the past week.
The network, which connects players in live game play worldwide, was shut down by the company last Wednesday after it said account information for certain players was compromised early last week.
An unauthorized person obtained players' names, addresses, birth dates, email addresses, passwords, log-in names and online handles, Sony said. Although it has no evidence credit card information was taken, the company said, "we cannot rule out the possibility."
Purchase history and credit card billing address information may also have been stolen, Sony said.
Sony said it has hired an outside security firm to investigate what happened and has taken steps to rebuild its system to provide greater protection for personal information.
The company said it expects to restore some services within a week.