Sony is offering to cover its North American PlayStation Network and Qriocity users with one year of identity theft protection through identity protection firm Debix. As Sony works to secure its network and restore services, a new threat has emerged of another possible cyber-attack. Is Sony ready for another attack on its security?

Sony is stepping up their efforts to make good with customers after their network was compromised almost three weeks ago in a cyber attack that potentially compromised now more than 100 million accounts between the Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services. Yesterday Sony Chairman Howard Stringer posted an update apologizing to customers and reaffirmed that despite the data lose, no credit card or personal data being misused. That's not to say there won't be, but to help offer a little protection to consumers, Sony is offering to cover PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that lost data in the attack with a $1 million identity AllClearID theft monitoring and insurance policy through identity protection firm Debix for 12 months. No details for a similar plan for SOE customers has been announced as of yet. More details about the policy can be found here.

In another part of an update released last night, Sony announced that it's in the final stages of internal testing to restore services for the Playstation Network. The company emphasized that it will do so only when they are certain that the network is secure, which makes the next part of this news even more interesting.

The threat to Sony security may not be over yet. According to a report from CNET, hackers may be planning another attack on Sony systems this weekend. An observer of one of the IRC chat channels used by hackers reported to CNET that hackers plan to attack Sony again this weekend and publicize some of the information stolen in response to Sony's handling of the network breach that occurred almost three weeks ago. The source claims hackers plan to release some or all of the information that they are able to copy from Sony servers, which include "customer names, credit card numbers, and addresses" according to the source.

The hackers claim to currently have access to some of Sony's servers and if they were to pull off another attack it would be the third in a series of devastating security blows since last month. Part of which involved a DoS attack by the hacktivist group Anonymous, who has repeatedly denied responsibility for the Sony security breach. The failure in Sony security has prompted investigations from the US Congressional Subcommittee, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the New York State Attorney General and several other consumer privacy agencies in various other countries.

Whether this latest unconfirmed threat is real or just the usual trolling of Internet chatter remains to be seen. Stay tuned and we'll update you with any further details as they develop.

Sources

Letter from Howard Stringer

Sony Offering Free 'AllClear ID Plus" Identity Protection


CNET Third Attack Against Sony Planned

Sony Important Steps for Service Restoration