Sony suspends 93,000 online accounts after break-in attempt

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Many gamers were angry that Sony took several days to acknowledge and report April's hack. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

Up to 93,000 accounts have been compromised in a fresh attack on Sony's online servers, following an attack earlier this year that saw the company's PlayStation Network taken offline.

According to the official PlayStation blog, attempts were made to access data held on the Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services using a "massive" set of sign-in IDs and passwords.

The company's chief information security officer, Philip Reitinger, said in a statement on the blog that a majority of the passwords did not work and that customer credit card information was not at risk. The company has temporarily suspended 93,000 accounts.

Reitinger was quick to shift responsibility for the break-in to third-party sites or servers. "These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources," he said.

"In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our networks. We have taken steps to mitigate the activity."

In April, Sony was forced to take its PlayStation Network service offline for several weeks after a hacking attack accessed the account details of up to 70 million PS3 owners.

The chief executive, Howard Stringer, offered a personal apology to gamers after the scandal, but many were angry that Sony's security was compromised so extensively and that it took the company several days to acknowledge and report that a hack had taken place. A month later, the hacking group Lulzsec claimed to have obtained the personal information of more than 1 million users from Sony Pictures websites.

On this occasion, Sony appears to have notified customers almost immediately, and this is a much smaller, less sophisticated intrusion. Reitinger claimed that accounts compromised in the latest attack would be monitored for unauthorised access and that affected customers would be emailed and asked to change their log-in details. The accounts have currently been disabled.

Reitinger, a former US homeland security official who was installed as Sony's information security chief in the wake of the April hacking controversy, ended his statement by reminding customers to choose unique, hard-to-guess passwords and "always look for unusual activity in your account".

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Verizon strike: Union battle line after Wisconsin | Ari Paul

Verizon project managers to fill in for Union workers on strike have to cross the picket lines. Video: Darren Durlach/Boston Globe via YouTube

Outside Verizons lower Manhattan headquarters, crowds of nearly 200 strikers are encamped – many of them with their entire families, as construction workers from the World Trade Center site next door comes by to wish you good luck. Some strikers listened to Union officers gives speech on the bull Horn when someone motioned to workers ' compensation comes back from their lunch break: cries of "scab" pierced the air.

The company is fighting back vigorously. Manhattan judge ruled simply that only a specified number of strikers to picket a company Web site: between 6 and 50, depending on the size of the location, public radio reported.

Workers in telecommunications giant has been on the picket line before – for example during four months long strike in 1989 in predecessor company, NYNEX. But the current operation – 45,000 members of the communications workers of America and international brotherhood of electrical workers from New England to Virginia walked off the job on August 7 – comes at a critical time. A strike in a high profile company that is so profitable even asks for extreme worker concessions is a game which the unions hope could win wider sympathy around the country. Even fought unions to turn the national media coverage Wisconsin of protests in the electoral process victories; the public may not be willing to support labour.

A year ago told CWA leaders its members to prepare for a strike. The company claimed $ 1 billion in concessions – amounts to a salary and benefits cut at $ 20,000 per employee and the abolition of pensions for new workers. cwa District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton said that the company also was demanding pensioners pay $ 6,000 annually for their medical services "after the given promises that it would be free". This, Union leaders point out, despite a $ 19bn profit in the last four years. Verizon's argument is that all the profits come from non-union wireless operation, while unionised forms wireline end is a bulky, money-losing dinosaur.

But the company's claim to control? Cable-based maintenance is actually the backbone of the wireless service. Mobile phone carriers (Verizon and other carriers) uses copper infrastructure is built and maintained by Union workers. This same network also supports landlines for companies that still rely on them, and alarm systems for offices and housing. "AT&T, MetroPCS, the lease it from us," says Mike Nixon, who has worked as a field engineer with the company for 23 years. "Verizon profits no matter what."

Strikers say it on corporate greed. Verizon actually started a new venture, Verizon Wireless when it went to the mobile phone business – in order to avoid new workforce from automatically fed into the negotiation agent device. 2007 meeting minutes (A) by American rights at work (pdf) said Verizon has "maintained non-union divisions of interfering with its workers ' freedom of Association" Although the company "could choose a high-road model for investing in its employees and still compete in a rapidly changing industry.

CWA'S Shelton said he received hundreds of e-mails a day from non-union workers in support of the strike. More inspiring, he added, was to CWA picketers have protests outside Verizon Wireless stores and on several occasions, low wages, retail workers at these sites welcome protesters and inquire about how they can join the Union.

"People are angry," says Kate Bronfenbrenner, Director of workforce education research on Cornell University's School of industrial and labour relations. In New Yorkis CWA succeeded strikes against telephone company in the past. In 1989, it fought off cutbacks to healthcare services and later secured work breaks for members, Bronfenbrenner says.

Trade unions in Wisconsin trøde, they were at a turning point, but the Republicans held their majority in the Senate, State by winning four of six recall election this week. People are generally a far from rushing to sign their Union cards. But when Verizons service is eventually halted by the strike, more and more people will be aware of. Few are likely to be sympathetic to Verizon.

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' I felt great after I have lost my mobile phone»

In front of our eyes, Eric ... Stoltz with Paula Malcomson in Caprica. Photo: Syfy

What is your favorite piece of technology, and how it has improved your life?
TV-B-gone. It is a wonderful little device that has one button – which when pressed, will turn off any tv within 15 metres. It is ideal when you are sitting in an empty pub and a television is blaring ads too high. A simple device that brings peace.

When was the last time you used it, and what for?
Last week. Turn off a TV.

What additional features do you want to add, if you could?
It would be nice if the company expanded their repertoire a little. "People-who-speak-on-cellphones-in-shops-B-Gone" would be album swell. Not to mention "Taxes-B-gone".

Do you think, it will be obsolete in 10 years time?
' No '.

What always frustrates you about technology in General?
All that cursed convenience.

Is there any particular piece of technology that you have owned and hated?
I have a love-hate with just about all the technology in my life. My first typewriter in particular. I had a helluva time put new tape on it.

If you had a tip to get the best out of new technology, what would it be?
Please wait until the next version comes out – price drops, and they work normally some of the kinks.

You consider yourself to be a living or a nerd?
Both at different times in my life. Recently I directing an episode of hopeful of this and I lost my cellphone – and I devote time to buy a new one for three weeks. Well, could the first few days in was eager as hell, a little delirium tremens, didn't think I make it through, and so on. Then been kind of curious something – I began to feel great. Really great. Completely untethered, almost giddy. I had not had this feeling, because I learned to ride a bike, when I was a kid – it was fantastic. Later this week, my Twitter account suddenly and inexplicably deleted all my incredibly interesting speech. I took this as a sign, and decided to leave Luddites and end the modern age once more. But I am still thought-provoking about the entire experience.

What is the most expensive piece of technology you've ever owned?
My car or my piano, they were both pretty animals.

Mac or PC, and why?
Mac. I have been on them for 13 years and never had a virus.

Buy you still physical media such as CDs and DVDs, or you download? What was your last purchase?
I still buy them, even if it is stupid. A DVD Store near me went out of business last year, so I favoritspillet up a lot of older and foreign films. CDs not so much, I download them. my last purchase was you are not listening to the rescue operations.

Robot butlers – a good idea or not?
Let us not kid ourselves here, robots that are already running most of our world. We want to be their butlers quickly enough.

What piece of technology would you most like to own?
The emerging nanotechnology, which is able to deliver treatment to (and trigger death) malignant cancer cells in your body while leaving the healthy cells untouched.

• Eric Stoltz stars in tv series Caprica, season, one which is out now on DVD

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