PlayStation breach teaches security lessons

Sony has confirmed that hackers broke into its PlayStation network, exposing the personal information of up to 77 million users worldwide. The company says the breach occurred between April 17 and 19.

What could this mean for users?

John Abell, New York bureau chief of Wired.com, said on "The Early Show" Wednesday the break-in may have exposed a good deal of personal information.

PlayStation users told to check credit card accounts

Co-anchor Chris Wragge noted, "Birth dates, e-mails, purchase histories, potentially passwords and log-ins -- Sony doesn't know for sure the credit card information, if it was stolen. ... You have to assume, if they've gotten all of this other information, they probably have your credit card."

Abell said, "(Credit card information) might be stored in a different place. The least important information is the credit card, because it's easily replaced and you're indemnified against any loss."

But, Abell said, the most valuable information the hackers might have is your e-mail address.

"Now people can e-mail you, do phishing attacks and try to get other information from you directly," he explained. "... You'll get e-mails pretending to be nice people, e-mails spoofing Sony -- perhaps, 'You've heard there's been a terrible break-in, click here and let's sort it out.' People get these e-mails all the time, you'll get more now."

So what are hackers looking for?

"It's valuable to them. I'm saying to you, it's not that big a deal, because it's easily replaced," Abell said. "Sometimes it's just sport and sometimes it is to get credit card information and to get the ingredients that you need to create identity profiles."

So what should users do next?

Abell said, "Sony is already telling people when the system is back up, change your log-in, change your passwords, change all kinds of stuff, and start over again."

For those who have had information exposed to the hackers, Abell says they're likely to get several e-mails -- if they're not receiving them already.

He said, "They might just go to your spam filter, but the basic rule is never click on a link in an e-mail from somebody that you don't know. If it's your mother, you do -- maybe."

As a consumer, Abell could offer few safeguards against releasing this type of information.

"This is the world we live in now," he said. "If you want to be on iTunes, if you want to do commerce, if you want to do business with big places, gaming systems, they're going to ask you to store information to authenticate you as being not a minor and also to have a recurring way of charging you as you go along."

But, he advised, "Be very, very wary about agreeing to store information on a site, unless you absolutely have to, unless you really trust the person. This sort of thing is going to happen anyway, and then you just have to get into your bunker mode and deal with the aftermath."