Sony Data Breach Hits 2.58 Million Customers — But It’s Not PlayStation

First, the part PlayStation players need to hear: this is not a PSN breach. Sony Network Communications, the Sony Group company that runs Japanese internet services So-net and plala, has confirmed a major data breach affecting 2,585,481 customer records — and PlayStation Network is not part of it.

Sony Network Communications announced on October 27 that its So-net member database was hit by unauthorized access from outside the company on October 19. The company confirmed the intrusion on October 23, shut down the affected servers and blocked the attacker’s connections, and confirmed on October 24, after investigating, that personal information had leaked.

It is also the latest rough Sony headline, separate from PlayStation Studios — see Sucker Punch Hit With Layoffs After Ghost of Yotei.

Who Was Affected

The 2,585,481 records break down into two services:

• So-net: 2,141,986 records — 1,869,771 current members and 272,215 former members who cancelled in March 2026 or later
• plala (S Course): 443,495 records — 422,365 current members and 21,130 former members who cancelled in March 2026 or later. plala (S Course) is the Docomo Hikari partner ISP service whose systems and customer management are handled by Sony Network Communications.

For both services, the leaked member information includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, user IDs, dates of birth, gender, and internet connection IDs. Passwords for those member accounts themselves were not leaked, according to Sony.

The Part That Matters Most: 54,401 Email Passwords Leaked

Separate from the main member records, Sony confirmed that email addresses AND email passwords leaked for 54,401 accounts across four older So-net mail services:

• Mail Service (G): 24,655 addresses
• A-Box (additional mailbox): 17,672 addresses
• So-net VAIO Mail: 7,005 addresses
• PostPet Mail Account Service: 5,069 addresses

Sony reset those email passwords on October 27 and is asking affected customers to set a new password through their My Page. Anyone who reused one of those email passwords anywhere else should change it there too — that reuse is exactly how a leak like this spreads to other accounts.

Sony also confirmed leaks of 16 bank account records — bank name and number, branch name and number, account type, account number, and account holder name — and 7 records of password-reset notification information, whose passwords were also reset. The bank records were So-net only; plala customers had no bank information leaked. Sony says it does not store customers’ bank PINs, and no credit card information was included in any of the leaked categories.

What Was Not Hit

Sony says it has not confirmed any leak for NURO, its fiber service, or for any of its other services beyond the ones listed above. And again, because the headline alone is already causing confusion online: this announcement says nothing about PlayStation, PSN accounts, or PlayStation Network passwords. If you only game on PlayStation and have never been a So-net or plala customer in Japan, Sony is not saying your data was in this database.

What Sony Is Doing Now

Sony Network Communications says the cause is still under investigation, it has reported the incident to Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission, and it is contacting affected customers individually. As of October 27, it says it has not confirmed any secondary damage from the leak — but it is warning customers that the leaked information could be used for suspicious emails, texts, and phone calls, and is telling people not to respond, not to open links in those messages, and not to open attachments. It has also set up a special support line for affected customers in Japan.

We will update this post if Sony confirms the cause, expands the scope, or reports any misuse of the leaked data.

For more Sony headlines this month, see Sony Said It AGAIN: No More PS5 Discs After January 2028.

Sources:

• Sony Network Communications official announcement, October 27, 2026
• Reuters via TradingView
• ITmedia News
• Impress Watch

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