Sony Corp., struggling to restore online entertainment services after a record theft of customer data, said Wednesday its PlayStation blog has been partially disrupted after the website was attacked by hackers.

Sony boosted the blog's security system following attacks on the site last month, Makiko Noda, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo-based company, said. The new system is likely the reason why some access by users outside the U.S. has been denied, she said.

The maker of PS3 game consoles was targeted in a "large-scale, coordinated denial-of-service attack" in April by the group called Anonymous in a protest against Sony for suing a hacker, Kazuo Hirai, the company's executive deputy president, said in a statement last week. The PlayStation blog was among the services attacked, Noda said.

Japan's biggest exporter of consumer electronics took down its PS Network and Qriocity services April 20 because of data theft affecting 77 million users. Sony Online Entertainment, a U.S. unit that offers online games, also shut its network May 1 after discovering personal information from approximately 24.6 million accounts may have been compromised.

The total number of users affected is the most reported by any single company, surpassing the 92 million America Online subscribers whose screen names were stolen in 2003, according to Koki Shiraishi, a Tokyo-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Co.

Resuming partial operation of the PS Network and Qriocity may take another day or longer, Sony's Noda said. Before discovering the data theft at San Diego-based Sony Online Entertainment, Sony had planned to bring the services back on May 8.

Sony Chairman Howard Stringer apologized to users of the PS Network and Qriocity on the blog May 5.

"We're very sorry for the inconvenience," Noda said. "We're investigating the matter and trying to improve the situation."

Good year for Hitachi

KYODO

Hitachi Ltd. said Wednesday it posted a record-high consolidated net profit of ¥238.87 billion in fiscal 2010 ended in March, rebounding from a loss of ¥106.96 billion a year earlier, as global demand for its electronics and automobile-related products recovered.

The electronics company said its operating profit more than doubled to ¥444.51 billion on sales of ¥9.32 trillion, up 3.9 percent, with improvement in its construction equipment, sophisticated material and automotive system businesses offsetting the impact of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The company said it will pay a full-year dividend of ¥8 per share, including an interim dividend of ¥5 paid earlier.

Hitachi skipped paying out a dividend in the previous fiscal year.

As for fiscal 2011 through next March, Hitachi said it cannot provide an earnings forecast for now as it is difficult to assess the full effects of the quake and tsunami disaster, which damaged the company's production facilities and caused disruptions to its manufacturing processes.