Solicitor offers help to people affected by Sony data breaches

Law firm Ralli is offering legal advice to UK users of Sony's Online Entertainment and Playstation Networks after Sony revealed hackers had broken into its databases.

With the email addresses, credit, debit card details, passwords and birth dates of more than 100 million people worldwide believed to have been stolen, Ralli said Sony did face legal implications in the UK.

The Information Commissioner's Office is already investigating breaches and has said clauses in Sony's terms and conditions will not protect it from the UK Data Protection Act.

Keith Arrowsmith, Ralli's head of intellectual property and media said UK consumers could have legal rights to sue the company if they suffer financial loss.

"The UK has a complex mesh of regulations that may apply in this situation, including data protection laws, contract provisions, consumer protection regulations, negligence, as well as the criminal sanctions against computer hackers," he said.

In its blog Sony announced the "illegal and unauthorised intrusions" took place in on two separate occasions in April. The firm has now closed down the gaming networks while it enhances security, but it is feared the stolen information could be used to launch mass frauds.

Nick Caplin, Sony's head of European communications said: "For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information.

"If you have provided your credit card data... we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."

Although there are no official reports of people's data being used fraudulently, it is still early days.

Ralli, which successfully represented a number of defendants in the recent ACS: Law copyright cases, said people who do discover misuse of their details from these breaches should contact it. To have a viable claim, they must have suffered some sort of loss.

The law firm said it is likely these cases will be funded on a ‘No-Win No-Fee' basis, such as with the ACS: Law cases. It is not sure yet if it would pursue any claims as either group action, or separately.

Mr Arrowsmith said: "The full effects of Sony's breach of security will not be known for some time... I will be monitoring the information published by Sony to see which of these rules [of law] become relevant to this particular unfortunate incident."

People can email Ralli at dataprotection@ralli.co.uk.