Sony reportedly facing another ransomware attack, PlayStation Network may get affected

Sony is reportedly facing another major ransomware attack once again, which might have massive repurcussions on the PlayStation Network and services as a whole. The news comes courtesy of Cyber Security Connect, who mentioned in a recent official blogpost that a ransomware newcomer, has "successfully breached" Sony's systems.

Although newcomer to the ransomware scene, the attacker has racked up an "impressive amount of victims" since their arrival last month. Although the attack is yet to be acknowledged by Sony and PlayStation, should it turn out to be true, it might end up dealing a major blow to the console manufacturer and its online infrastructure.

Surprisingly enough, the ransomware group that claims to have breached Sony's systems does not intend to use it for ransom. Instead they've reportedly threatened to "sell the data" due to Sony not wanting to pay.

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A ransomware group claims to have breached Sony's systems, including PlayStation Network

According to Cyber Security Connect, the relatively newcomer ransomware group is Ransomware.vc. They are reportedly operating out of Ukraine, mostly, with a few members in Russia, and intend to sell the data as they've been denied any payment from Sony's end. The group stated:

"We have successfully compromissed all of sony systems,” the group claimed on both the clear and dark nets. “We won’t ransom them! We will sell the data. Due to Sony not wanting to pay. DATA IS FOR SALE.”

Cyber Security Connect also mentioned that the group has shown "proof of hack" data relating to the Sony systems breach. However, none of it is "particularly compelling information on the face of things."

According to Cyber Security Connect, the proof includes what appear to be screenshots of an internal log-in page, PowerPoint presentation, multitude of Java files, and a file tree with fewer than 6,000 files.

This won't be the first time Sony and PlayStation are facing such major ransomware attack. The 2011's major PSN data breach, which resulted in the service being taken offline for almost three weeks, was one of the most memorable incident in gaming-related hacks.

Fortunately, given PlayStation and Sony's experience and online infrastructure, dealing with such attacks should not be much of a hassle for the console manufacturer. And given the group's proofs are not that compelling to begin with, it's highly unlikely to affect players' data shared with PSN.