Sony hacked twice in one day, this time $1225 was stolen from accounts in Japan

Sony just can’t seem to catch any breaks online. Just when it seems the PlayStation Network is finally back online with the PlayStation Store to follow on May 24, various sources are reporting two new cyber attacks on Sony websites today.
F-Secure Security Lab first discovered that a phishing site was hiding on the Sony Thailand homepage and stored on a Sony server this moring. It seems the malicious site was posing as an Italian credit card company CartaSi to try to collect personal data from unsuspecting users. (For more on phishing, check out the Wikipedia entry.) According to the F-Secure blog, “Basically this means that Sony has been hacked, again. Although in this case the server is probably not very important.”
The second attack unfortunately caused more damage. According to Reuters, So-Net, the Internet provider of Sony Japan, “alerted customers that an intruder broke into its system and stole virtual points from account holders worth $1,225.”
So how should Sony Japan and So-Net customers protect themselves from becoming the next victim?
“What we’ve done is stopped the So-Net points exchanges and told customers to change their passwords,” So-Net said in a statement to customers on its website in Japanese.
Without a doubt, Sony needs to better secure all its online properties (not just the PlayStation Network) quickly because the hackers are making a mockery of its seemingly wafer-thin defense system. This fiasco is quickly spiraling out of control.
[Source: F-Secure Blog via Ars Technica; Reuters via Chicago Tribune]