Hackers Target 'One Million Sony Customers'

Sony has once again been targeted by a group of hackers who claim they gained access to details of one million customers.

To prove its claim, the LulzSec group published the names, birthdates, addresses, emails, phone numbers and passwords of thousands of people who had entered competitions promoted by Sony.

"From a single injection, we accessed everything," the hacking group said in a statement.

"Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?"

A Sony spokesman said the company was "looking into these claims" but refused to say anything further.

One person whose details were retrieved was 84-year-old Mary Tanning, from Minnesota, who confirmed the details were correct.

"I don't panic," she said, going on to explain that she was not very well off and was very seldom online. "There's nothing that they can pick out of me."

Another target, Elizabeth Smith from Tucson, Arizona, was angry.

"If this is so, I'm very upset," she said. "I'm very disappointed that Sony would not protect things like that."

Ms Smith said she often entered online sweepstakes, including ones connected with Sony. She said she had not heard anything from Sony itself about the breach.

This is the second time hackers have targeted Sony's computer network - in April they stole data from more than 100 million accounts.

Sony executives on Thursday appeared before a Congressional committee to testify on the April attack of its gaming networks and were criticised for not properly protecting customers.

April's attack - considered the biggest in internet history - forced the Japanese company to shut down its PlayStation network and other services for close to a month.