Sony attacked by hackers again

A hacker group has claimed to have broken into a Sony company network, stealing the personal data of more than a million users, including passwords and email addresses, in yet another attack on the Japanese company.

The hacker group, called LulzSec, posted a statement on its website saying it had hacked the servers that run SonyPictures.com, part of Sony’s movie and television operations. LulzSec said the information hadn’t been encrypted to protect the content of the data in the event of a breach.

"From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING," it said. "Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?

"Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plaintext, which means it's just a matter of taking it," LulzSec said. "This is disgraceful and insecure: they were asking for it."

Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesman Jim Kennedy said the company was aware of the claims and looking into them, the Dow Jones newswire reports.

This is the latest hacker attack for Sony, which was forced to suspend its popular online gaming systems PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment after an April break in compromised more than 100 million user accounts.

The latest alleged attack comes just 24 hours after the Japanese company announced it had beefed up its security systems, and said the PlayStation Network would be fully restored in the U.S. and Europe, the BBC reports.

Sony's networks have become targets for hackers and the company has confirmed at least four other break-ins prior to the most recent attack.

LulzSec also claimed responsibility for hacking the PBS network’s website, and posting a fake news story that claimed the murdered rap star Tupac Shakur was alive and living in New Zealand. This was in protest of a PBS NewsHour program about WikiLeaks.