Congress wants to investigate PlayStation Network hack

A House of Representatives subcommittee asked Sony to provide information about the hacker attack that brought down the PlayStation Network and the Qriocity music and video service.

The network has been down for more than a week, denying 77 million registered gamers the ability to play online games, watch movies, listen to music or download other entertainment to their PlayStation 3 consoles and PlayStation Portable handhelds.

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The letter was addressed to Kazuo Hirai, the head of Sony’s game and networked services businesses. It asked him to answers a detailed list of questions related to the external intrusion. The subcommittee asked for a reply by May 6.

The letter came from the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, which is headed by Mary Bono Mack, Republican member of the House from California. The letter asked for information that Sony hasn’t supplied yet, such as the time of the attack, its knowledge of who was responsible, and when the company told authorities.

The subcommittee also asked what kind of data the hackers stole, including credit card information. Sony has said it doesn’t have evidence that customer credit card numbers were stolen. It isn’t clear when the network will be back up. On hacker underground forums, anonymous commenters are claiming they have access to 2.2 million PlayStation Network credit card numbers.