Sony details ID protection scheme as PSN emails delayed

Sony has published details of the ID protection scheme which it will offer to users in the countries affected by the PSN and Qriocity security breach, listing the six services that eligible members will have access to.

The scheme, powered by Affinion, will be offered free to all eligible users for twelve months, with Sony footing the bill. Territories covered in the initial offering are the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany.

Sony is currently investigating the possibility of rolling out protection schemes in other areas, dependent on local suppliers being sourced.

"The programme will be offered by Affinion International Limited, to allow eligible PSN/Qriocity members impacted by the recent data breach to avail themselves of an identity protection programme," read a Sony statement.

"It comprises monitoring, surveillance, reporting and insurance for all existing eligible PSN/Qriocity registrants who contact Affinion within the five countries who may be at risk from Identity Fraud and the premium will be paid for by Sony for the first 12 months."

The plan offers the following six personal protection options:

A) Personal Information protection

• 1. Monitoring and Alerting Service
• 2. Personal Information Protection Software

B) Help/Assistance and guidance

• 3. Dedicated helpline
• 4. Victim of Fraud support

C) Financial Protection

• 5. Insurance that covers the expenses incurred in identity restoration following identity fraud
• 6. Card Monitoring and Alerting Service

Elsewhere in the maelstrom surrounding the scandal, Sony Executive Howard Stringer has struck back at detractors, including the US House of Representatives, who claimed that the publisher's week-long response time to customers was too slow.

"This was an unprecedented attack," Stringer told Reuters. "A lot of these breaches are never reported by companies or it takes companies a month. You're telling me my week wasn't fast enough?

"There's a charge for the system being down, a charge for identity theft protection," Stringer continued. "The charges mount up but there are no numbers yet."

Meanwhile, PSN customers waiting for their password reset emails to come through may want to contact their ISP, Sony has said, because the huge volume of mails is causing delays to delivery.

Speaking on the PlayStation Blog, Sony representative James Gallagher asked for customers to be patient as they wait for the mandatory password reset mails to hit their inboxes.

"Just been checking the latest on this and there is still a huge backlog of emails with the ISP and waiting to go through," read Gallagher's post on the blog.

"All we can say is please wait and they will all go through as the massive demand eases. However, if you have been waiting for more than 24 hours than it may be worth submitting a new request now, as each email has a 24-hour expiry. Just be sure to only submit the request once."