Japan's Sony Inc has resumed the partial operations of its leading PlayStation Network and Qriocity entertainment services in the U.S. and Europe after more than three weeks that they were attacked by hackers, the company said in a statement.

This would include the restored operations include online gaming, chat service and music downloads. Sony plans to restart service in Asia soon, the emailed statement indicated.

The intrusion into Sony Playstation's system on 20 April led to a breach of data on more than 100 million users. Authorities said this is the second-biggest online theft of personal information.

Sony failed to deliver that it will be back online on 1 May. Nevertheless the extent of the data breach needed more time to elevate security levels on the site.

Sony said it intensified the security for PlayStation Network and Qriocity by increasing the number of firewalls between servers and adding software to monitor intrusions and system vulnerabilities, it said. The company also appointed Fumiaki Sakai to the newly created post of chief information security officer, a related Bloomberg News report indicated.

The network is being restored in phases by region, and some U.S. states are still without services, Sony said. It will likely take "a bit more time" to turn on services nationwide and information on roll-out plans will be updated on the Playstation blog, the company said.

Phased-in Recovery

Phased recovery has also started in South America, the Middle East, New Zealand, and Australia, according to Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman based in Tokyo.

Users, are however, need to change their passwords and go through a mandatory system update, the company advised.

Sony Online Entertainment, the San Diego-based unit offering games played on personal computers, also resumed some services, Sony said today.

Sony said it plans to restore full operation of online services including purchases of games and video content by the end of May.

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