While the Playstation Network online gaming service is being restored in the US, Europe and other parts of the world, Sony"s online network is still down in the native country of Japan. Now it appears that part of the reason comes from that country"s credit card companies. According to a report at Andriasang, those companies along with the country"s government are still waiting for Sony to provide some needed information before the Playstation Network can come back online.
According to the story, the credit card companies are at the moment supposed to compensate Playstation Network users if those users discover that their credit card info is being used illegally due to the cyber attack that shut down the Playstation Network on April 20. Sony has already announced a deal with US and European Playstation Network users to give the fraud and identity theft protection, and a $1 million insurance policy, for one year. So far, Sony has not announced that kind of a plan for Japanese Playstation Network users.
Sony has repeatedly said there is no evidence that any credit card info has been compromised as a result of the Playstation Network cyber attack. The company has apparently not been very forthcoming with Japan"s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on its policies on credit card safety. However the article says that Sony has started to respond to the ministry"s inquires.
In related news, it appears that hackers have hit another one of Sony"s business units. According to a report on ABC.net.au, customers of So-Net, described as "the internet service provider unit" of Sony, has told its customer"s that a hack attack stole about 100,000 yen ($1,225) from user"s accounts.