[5] Government officials in various countries voiced concern over the theft and Sony's one-week delay before warning its users.

Subsequent to the announcement on both the official blog and by e-mail, users were asked to safeguard credit card transactions by checking bank statements.

In 2012, The Guardian wrote: The attack, which may have leaked credit card details for millions of users, has never been traced to any group – although Sony suggested not long afterwards that Anonymous might have been involved.

[21] While most games remained playable in their offline modes, the PlayStation 3 was unable to play certain Capcom titles in any form.

Streaming video providers throughout different regions such as Hulu, Vudu, Netflix and LoveFilm displayed the same maintenance message.

[24] Sony expressed their regrets for the downtime and called the task of repairing the system "time-consuming" but would lead to a stronger network infrastructure and additional security.

[26] However, the next day Sony stated that there was a "clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online", with some services expected to be restored within a week.

Over 12,000 credit card numbers, albeit in encrypted form, from non-U.S. cardholders and additional information from 24.7 million SOE accounts may have been accessed.

[33] In the letter Sony announced that they would be providing Identity Theft insurance policies in the amount of US$1 million per user of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, despite no reports of credit card fraud being indicated.

This was later confirmed on the PlayStation Blog, where it was announced that the service, AllClear ID Plus powered by Debix, would be available to users in the United States free for 12 months, and would include Internet surveillance, complete identity repair in the event of theft and a $1 million identity theft insurance policy for each user.

[34][35] Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai reiterated said the "external intrusion" which had caused them to shut down the PlayStation Network constituted a "criminal cyber attack".

Sony announced that it was adding Data Forte to the investigation team of Guidance Software and Protiviti in analysing the attacks.

[39] Sony stated their belief that Anonymous, a decentralized unorganized loosely affiliated group of hackers and activists may have performed the attack.

[45] A Sony spokesperson said:[46] Various services began coming back online on a country-by-country basis, starting with North America.

[52] Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said the breach "certainly ranks as one of the biggest data losses ever to affect individuals".

[59] Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack and Congressman G. K. Butterfield sent a letter to Sony, demanding information on when the breach was discovered and how the crisis would be handled.

In this case that just didn't happen, and when the database was targeted – albeit in a determined criminal attack – the security measures in place were simply not good enough.

[62]A lawsuit was posted on April 27 by Kristopher Johns from Birmingham, Alabama on behalf of all PlayStation users alleging Sony "failed to encrypt data and establish adequate firewalls to handle a server intrusion contingency, failed to provide prompt and adequate warnings of security breaches, and unreasonably delayed in bringing the PSN service back online.

[71] On May 27, 2011, Sony announced the "welcome back" package for Japan[72] and the Asia region (Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia).

[74] On May 5, a letter from Sony Corporation of America CEO and President Sir Howard Stringer emphasized that there had been no evidence of credit card fraud and that a $1 million identity theft insurance policy would be available to PSN and Qriocity users.

[35] In March 2010, Sony launched a firmware update for the PlayStation 3 which removed the ability to install third-party operating systems like Linux.