Sony Network Communications, a Sony subsidiary that operates as an internet provider in Japan, confirmed a breach of its systems. According to BleepingComputer, the breach occurred on October 19 and was discovered four days later, when the company shut down the compromised servers and blocked external communication.
What was exposed
According to the investigation, 2,585,481 customer records were exposed, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, user IDs, dates of birth and gender. About 2.14 million belong to customers of So-net, Sony's veteran internet provider, and about 443,000 to plala customers.
Why it is dangerous
According to the report, payment details and passwords were not exposed. But the combination of name, phone, email and birth date is exactly what attackers need for convincing phishing messages that impersonate the provider and ask to "verify details" or "update payment methods".
A hard month for Japan
This is not the only breach in Japan this month: GMO Internet also suffered an attack on its cloud service that affected tens of thousands of servers and customer trading accounts. Sony itself remembers 2011 well, when breaches of the PlayStation Network and other services exposed details of more than 100 million accounts.
