Sony to restore most PlayStation services this week

The electronics and entertainment giant said users in the Americas and Europe and much of Asia will again be able to buy and download games online, and will also receive "welcome back" packs of services and content.

The company said that since being hacked in April, it had "implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions".

Sony was attacked in one of the biggest data breaches since the advent of the Internet, in which the user names, passwords, addresses and birth dates of more than 100 million people may have been compromised.

The company later suffered attacks on more websites worldwide including in Greece, Thailand and Indonesia, and on the Canadian site of mobile phone company Sony Ericsson.

Sony said it would also resume Qriocity online music services for PlayStation, VAIO laptops and other computers, although the resumption of video on demand services for network-enabled Sony devices would be announced later.

The Japanese electronic giant partially resumed online gaming services on May 15 in the Americas and Europe and on May 28 in much of Asia.

Details for fully resumed PlayStation Network services in Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, and a full resumption of Qriocity will be announced as they become available, Sony said.

(c) 2011 AFP