Sony executives bowed to apologize on Sunday for a security breach in the company's PlayStation network that caused the loss of personal data of some 77 million accounts on the online service.
Head of Sony PlayStation Unit, Kazuo Hirai apologized by saying parts of the service would be back this week and that the company would improve security measures.
He and other executives acknowledged that security precautions had not been enough, and promised that the company's network services were under a basic review to prevent a recurrence.
Hirai said the FBI and other authorities had been contacted to start an investigation into what the company called "a criminal cyber attack" on Sony's US data centre in San Diego, California.
Sony said account information for players using its PlayStation Network, including names, birth dates, email addresses and log-in information, was compromised.
Hirai is asking all users to change their passwords.
He says data from 10 million credit cards is believed to be involved, and that Sony still does not know whether the information was stolen.
Sony's new security measures now include software monitoring and enhanced data protection and encryption.
The network, which serves both the PlayStation video game machines and Sony's Qriocity movie and music services, has been shut down since April 20.
According to Sony, of the 77 million PlayStation Network accounts, about 36 million are in the US and elsewhere in the Americas, while 32 million are in Europe and nine million in Asia, mostly Japan.
