I’ve been fretting a little over the latest information to come to light about the recent security breach of the PlayStation Network. No doubt you’ve also been inundated with all sorts of updates on the state of the PlayStation Network but none of it is really aimed at New Zealand Gamers.

Game Culture has contacted Sony’s PR company to try and obtain an official word on this from a more localised perspective so with some luck, we’ll have words from PlayStation New Zealand on this issue relevant to New Zealand gamers.

I obtained the quotes below from the Neogaf forums relating to questions I had about my own information. The responses are from both the Playstation Network FAQ on the issue and official correspondence sent from Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment:

Q.5 How many were affected? How many per each region? What is the latest status of PlayStation Network registered account/ operating countries.

Our investigation indicates that all PlayStation Network/ Qriocity accounts may have been affected.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

From my own personal point of view (and experience), here is some information for you if you’re worried about your personal information and/or Credit Card/Debit Card details being obtained by a malicious source via the PSN:

1. If you’ve used your credit card or debit card on the PlayStation Network, this information is more than likely at risk. We can’t confirm this either way as most reports relating to this information online has been focused on US or UK based PSN users. To be safe, you should probably contact your bank immediately and cancel or put a ‘hold’ on your credit card or debit card. While this may be an inconvenience to many who use their credit cards or debit cards regularly, it’s better to be safe than sorry, right?

2. When contacting the bank this morning, the customer services rep kindly informed me that they had received an email communication from the Police informing them of the PlayStation Network breach and to expect customers calling in for ‘holds’ to be placed on their credit or debit cards. The staff are aware and informed so don’t delay in calling them!

3. There is also information circulating the internet currently about identity theft. Unfortunately, until the PlayStation Network is back up and running, PSN users are unable to update any of their information and this includes via the PSN website (I tried this myself and no go). Hopefully, PlayStation New Zealand will have some information for New Zealand gamers that will help put our minds at ease about the breach.

4. Passwords – THIS is a huge one. If you’ve used the same password on your PSN account elsewhere, I strongly suggest you change it and do it as soon as possible, especially if you’ve used it on other gaming networks (such as Xbox Live), or other banking websites. Your password could be compromised. So change it as soon as you can if you’ve used it elsewhere.

Stay tuned as we’ll update you once we hear back from PlaySation New Zealand.