It was recently reported that Sony has just stopped a huge security threat, unfortunately not before hackers accessed countless user’s confidential information. If left open for even longer, the security hole would have allowed hackers to gain control of even more accounts on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity music and video service, the company said. After almost a month offline, the PSN network was fully restored. Once up and running, Sony required users to first update the firmware on their PlayStation console and then to reset their account password utilizing Sony’s own password reset software.

The latest security hole was quickly identified on the company’s Webpage, as users began to try and   reset their passwords for their PSN and Qriocity accounts from their PCs, according to a May 18 report in The Wall Street Journal.

Sony first realized that unknown intruders had breached its servers on April 16, having stolen personal information from 77 million individuals with accounts on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. The company shut down the services on April 20, and then finally revealed the breach the public on April 26. A second data breach occurred shortly after the first attack, affecting another 25 million individuals with accounts on Sony Online Entertainment service on May 2. Analysts have estimated the breach could cost the company upwards as much as $1 billion in remedies, damage to the brand and lost business, a recent article from eWEEK.com stated.

The security hole on the password reset page let anyone who had the account holder’s date of birth and email address to reset the passwords. Sony stated that the birth dates and email addresses were among the personal information stolen, when attackers first breached its servers.

Currently, the password reset page for the PlayStation Network is still down, even though the issue has been addressed, Nick Caplin, head of communications at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe stated. The website will be available “as soon as we bring that site back up,” Caplin wrote in a statement.

According to this article, the downed network should not affect users trying to get back on the PSN, due to the fact that they can utilize the PlayStation 3 console to reset their PSN passwords. The problem was only for users who were attempting to use their own computer to access the page online, a Sony spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal, in a statement.

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