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Data theft: Top 5 most expensive data breaches

1. (tie) Sony - to be determined

Thomas Peter / Reuters
A person plays a video game at a Sony Playstation in Sony's flagship store in Berlin, April 27, 2011. Hackers had stolen names, addresses, and possibly credit card details from more than 100 million user accounts of its video game online network, in one of the largest, and possibly most expensive, Internet security break-ins ever.

  • By Mary Helen Miller Correspondent

The Sony data breach, which exposed information from more than 100 million user accounts in April, could prove to be the mostly costly data breach of all time. Hackers obtained personal information, including credit, debit, and bank account numbers in some instances, of PlayStation Network users and Sony Online Entertainment users. After discovering there had been a breach, Sony shut down both networks temporarily. Ponemon estimates that the breach could cost Sony and credit card issuers up to a total of $2 billion.

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