Hackers claim they stole 2 million credit cards off PlayStation Network

Today Sony updated its Official PlayStation Blog with another short Q&A session, allaying some minor concerns.

Trophies (in-game rewards earned and stockpiled across all titles), friend lists, settings and PS+ Cloud saves are all safe says the company, and will be restored “when the network is once again operational.” Sony also said it’s planning “special events” in the titles “DC Universe Online” and “Free Realms” to make up for the downtime.

But one big fear — that hackers accessed millions of credit card numbers along with personal info like names, billing addresses and passwords — persists.

The New York Times reported today that a security expert from Trend Micro who keeps tabs on what hackers are saying on the internet stumbled onto the mother lode: talk across chats and forums suggesting that not only was credit card info acquired, but those with the massive list (up to 2.2 million) attempted to use it to extort $100,000 from Sony.

It’s near-impossible to substantiate such claims, and when the outlet broached the subject to SCEA corporate communications and social media director Patrick Seybold told them, “To my knowledge there is no truth to the report that Sony was offered an opportunity to purchase the list.”

Earlier comments from Sony claimed all credit card information was encrypted and that it had “no evidence” to suggest numbers were stolen.

Over the past couple days, reports have come in across several sites mentioning unauthorized credit card usage. Nothing so far has suggested these are directly related to the leak through more than coincidence. If true, however, they could lend credence to those mounting lawsuits against Sony over the security breach.