Breaking News: Sony pulls gaming service after 24.6 million more user accounts are stolen
Monday, May 2, 2011 at 8:24PM 
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Sony has been forced to cut off its Sony Online Entertainment service after another 24.6 million user accounts have been compromised by hackers Sony said in a press release. This is the second such instance of customer data being accessed on Sony online gaming and entertainment services and brings the total number of compromised user accounts breached to 100 million, which is unprecedented.
The first attack which took place April 20th, forcing Sony to pull the plug on its PlayStation Network and Qriocity streaming services after 77 million user accounts were exposed. These services have not gone back online.
The attack on Sony's online services, which have critical user information such as names, addresses and passwords has earned the ire of customers and observers who are aware that this information can be used by hackers to access other services, commit fraud and ultimately lead to identity theft. 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes) were also taken.
Hit the jump is Sony's recent press release on the matter.