Alberta's privacy commissioner has some advice to Sony PlayStation customers who recently had their personal information hacked. His first recommendation: to change all online passwords immediately.
"I think the smart thing to do would be to change all your passwords," said Alberta's Privacy Commissioner, Frank Work.
Earlier this week, Sony told customers their account information, including names, birthdates, email addresses and log-in information, was compromised for certain players using its PlayStation Network.
On Thursday, the company said it had encrypted the credit card data that hackers may have stolen, which reduces but does not eliminate the chances that hackers could have used the personal information.
Sony halted the online network last Wednesday, but did not notify customers about the breach for another six days. Users are now being directed to Sony's blog for updates.
"I think they should have said something right away and said ‘change your passwords,'" said PlayStation user Kevin Cove.
Alberta's privacy commissioner says consumers who have had their information compromised should act quickly, and that's especially the case if gamers use the same password for multiple accounts.
Work also says users need to be aware of targeted e-mail scams, and they should consider cancelling their credit card.
"Be very very suspicious of any offers and if you are nervous about your credit card, despite the fact that they say it was encrypted, cancel it," said Work.
Cove says he is using this as a learning experience and vows to only give out his personal information when he has to.
"It will definitely make me think about giving information out online that could be hacked," he said.
The privacy commissioner is now looking into the matter.
Sony says some services should be running within the week.
With files from Sonia Sunger
