Gamers' Voice To File Complaint with Information Commissioner Over PSN

Update: A subsequent story on Eurogamer confirms that the Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed its plans to grill Sony over the theft of millions of PlayStation Network users' personal data and credit card information.

"The Information Commissioner's Office takes data protection breaches extremely seriously," the organization told Eurogamer this morning. "Any business or organization that is processing personal information in the UK must ensure they comply with the law, including the need to keep data secure. We have recently been informed of an incident which appears to involve Sony. We are contacting Sony and will be making further enquiries to establish the precise nature of the incident before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken by this office."

Original Story: UK gamer rights group Gamers' Voice says that it plans to ask the Information Commissioner to investigate Sony Computer Entertainment over the week-long security leak that has left an estimated 70 million PlayStation Network users worldwide vulnerable because of security breaches of personal data and credit card information. Last night Sony sent out an email to customers warning them to check their credit card statements and change their online passwords after confirming that hackers had stolen personal data. Gamers' Voice criticized the company for not alerting customers to the full extent of the data leak sooner.

"The response by Sony to this situation is at best disappointing and at worse dangerous as it has left up to 75 million customers at risk of identity theft and fraud," Gamers' Voice chairman Paul Gibson told Eurogamer. "While the Playstation Network being down for the better part of the week is unfortunate, it is the continuous lack of information being provided to gamers on the potential loss of their personal details which is most worrying."

"Since this security breach took place a week ago, Sony should have notified its customers immediately of the potential loss of information," Gibson continued. "We are contacting the Information Commissioner in the UK to see what powers they have to investigate this matter further and hopefully to force some answers from Sony about the extent of this security breach." If the Information Commissioner's Office finds that Sony has violated the law in the country, it has the power to rule on any complaints filed and take action.

Source: Eurogamer