Sony Pictures falls victim to major data breach

02.06.2011
LulzSec, a hacking group that recently made news for hacking into PBS, claimed today that it has broken into several Sony Pictures websites and accessed unencrypted personal information on over 1 million people.

In a statement released Thursday, the group claimed that it had also managed to compromise all "admin details," including administrator passwords, as well as 75,000 "music codes" and 3.5 million "music coupons" from Sony networks and websites.

The group has publicly posted a full list of compromised sites, along with links to documents containing samples of what it claimed was material stolen from Sony.

The compromised databases included one that appeared to contain information belonging to people who participated in a promotional campaign involving Sony Pictures and AutoTrader.com, as well as another involving a Sony-sponsored Summer of Restless Beauty campaign.

Also compromised in the break-in, according to LulzSec, was a Sony music codes database, a music coupons database, and databases from Sony BMG Belgium & Netherlands.

The compromised databases contained "varied assortments of Sony user and staffer information," the group said.