Just over 15,000 Maltese PlayStation network accounts hacked

Sony has released charts detailing both how the attack took place, and a regional breakdown of the PlayStation Network accounts hacked in an unprecedented gaming security compromise.

31 million accounts were hacked in the US alone, while nine million accounts were hacked in Great Britain. Seven million accounts were hacked in Japan.

In the meantime, the hackers that were possibly behind the attacks on the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment recently published some of the stolen personal information online.

The information uploaded consists of names and partial addresses of 2,500 Sony sweepstakes contestants to a website which took place 2001 – making the information largely outdated. The published data did not include credit card information or passwords.

"The website was out of date and inactive when discovered as part of the continued attacks on Sony," Sony told Reuters in a statement. The website was immediately taken down and was apparently controlled by Sony.

Loosely-organised hacking group Anonymous has so far denied responsibly for the hack-attacks, despite being named as those responsibly by Sony. But Anonymous members have apparently divulged that the group may still have been indirectly responsible.

In an interview with the Financial Times, one member divulges seeing the details of a vulnerability in Sony's network in an Anonymous chat room shortly before the first attack took place. "The hacker that did this was supporting OpSony's movements," he said.

This suggests that while a member of Anonymous might have carried out the attack, it could have taken place without the overall group’s knowledge or sanction.

Anonymous members have revealed that associated hackers may have used the organization's information in the attack on the PlayStation Network.

Sony’s ordeal is being reflected in the stock exchange, as dwindling investor confidence dropped its share prices by 3.7 percent this week after it was announced that Sony Online Entertainment had been hacked.

Tokyo's stock market was closed on Tuesday and Thursday for national holidays this week, but reactions to the news on Friday wasn't good.

On top of this, analysts are apparently saying that Sony's in a pretty precarious position, thanks especially to rumors that a third attack on the company's networks is planned this weekend.