Sony bosses must be praying for the day when it doesn't have to admit to another security breach, or confirm horrible rumours about credit card theft and the like.

But that day looks a distant hope at the moment as it has now confirmed that a further 24.6 million Sony gaming accounts, this time on the multiplayer PC network Sony Online Entertainment, may well have been hacked.

The admission came late on Monday with Sony stating: "We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company. On 1 May we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen.

"We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down, effective immediately."

The breach, like the PSN one, could have revealed personal data to hackers including names, home addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and gender information.

The Japanese electronics giant also stated that direct debit details of around 10,700 customers in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany were stolen, as well as credit or debit card details of a further 12,700 non-US customers.

The card data was apparently from 2007, and was encrypted - and Sony is still adamant that there is no evidence of the details being used in cyber-crime.

Troubled times at Sony towers, it's going to take a big mop to clean this PR-mess up.

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