First things first. The PlayStation Network has not been hacked again. Late Tuesday night. Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer Phillip Reitinger alerted the PlayStation community that tens of thousands of accounts from Sony Entertainment Network (PSN, Music Unlimited, Videos Unlimited) and Sony Online Entertainment were possibly accessed by outsiders. Around 60,000 PSN and SEN accounts and 33,000 Sony Online Entertainment accounts were logged in to by outsiders.

Yes, it has happened again. Bethesda is the newest victim of a hack that occurred over the weekend. No financial information was taken, but usernames, passwords and email addresses were. We know this is getting old, but you have to change all your passwords once again just to be on the safe side.

Website hacks in the videogame industry are becoming a common occurrence these days. Sony has been on the offensive for several weeks and Nintendo was recently the victim of a website breach. We’ve now learned that the Codemasters (DiRT 3, Overlord series) website was hacked on June 3, 2011.

Sony chairman Kazuo Hirai replied to a letter Congress sent which questioned many aspects of the PlayStation Network breach. Yesterday, we told you about a file that was left on one of Sony Online Entertainment’s servers. That file was named “Anonymous” and contained the words “We are Legion.” Despite Anonymous’ claims that it isn’t responsible for the attack, this file more or less implicates the organization in this crime. Hirai also explained the possibility of how Anonymous may have played a role in this whether they like it or not.

Last week The Subcommittee on Commerce Manufacturing and Trade sent a letter to Kazuo Hirai, chairman of the board of directors at SCEA, asking for answers related to the PSN security breach. Hirai responded to Congress’ 13 questions with a letter of his own that is dated May 3, 2011. Hirai explained how things transpired day by day, and what it is doing to prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again.

The past few weeks have not been good for Sony and PlayStation Network account holders, what with the hackers breaking in and taking private data from over 77 million people. It only got worse when the problem extended to Sony Online Entertainment on May 2, 2011, resulting in that service being shut down, over 24 million accounts compromised and around 12,700 credit card numbers were stolen from an outdated database. Sony Online Entertainment has now stepped up to offer details on what its going to be doing to make things right for its violated customers, starting with the people who play DC Universe Online…

Earlier today, we told you about how Sony Online Entertainment shut down Station.com due to a recent intrusion. We now know details of why SOE closed its servers. In a statement that can do nothing but send customers into a worrying frenzy, SOE announced that 12,700 credit card numbers have been stolen.

There have been an understandable number of rumors circling around the PSN data theft situation. Among them are murmurs that Sony warned banks of possible identity theft, passwords were stored in plain text and that hackers tried to sell stolen credit card information back to Sony. Sony has updated the PlayStation Blog once again to address some of these reports.

Tomorrow (May 1, 2011) Sony Computer Entertainment executive Kazuo Hirai will hold a press conference in Japan. The conference is meant to discuss aspects of the recent PlayStation Network breach and subsequent data theft. It will begin at 2pm Tokyo time or 1am EDT, 12am EDT and 10pm PDT.

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade from the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Sony today asking for some answers regarding the security breach. More specifically, the subcommittee addressed the letter to Kaz Hirai, the chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment. The letter is comprised of 13 questions that the subcommittee wants answered “no later than May 6.” That gives Sony one week to get its story and facts straight before Congress gets upset.