PlayStation-maker asks San Diego G-men to help hunt down hackers as North American lawmakers launch inquiries into PlayStation Network data leak.

This morning, the British government's Information Commissioner's Office announced it was opening an inquiry into the ongoing PlayStation Network outage and data leak. Now, US and Canadian government bodies have joined the chorus demanding answers about the exposure, which could potentially lead to the theft of up to 77 million PSN users' personal information.

"Sony has reportedly asked the FBI to join the hunt for the PSN hackers."

Reuters reports that US Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-California) has asked members of the US House of Representatives' subcommittee for commerce, manufacturing, and trade to begin looking into the data leak. Mack, the widow of the late US Representative Sonny Bono, chairs the subcommittee, which will apparently soon weigh in on whether hearings are needed on the matter. Bono Mack's move comes one day after US Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on Sony to offer full disclosure to PSN users if their information was compromised.

Reuters also reports that Sony has contacted the San Diego office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's cybercrimes unit to look into the data breach. The news service could not get public comment, but did cite unnamed sources as saying say the law enforcement body was investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, north of the border, Canadian authorities are also looking into the PSN debacle. Canada's privacy commissioner told the Vancouver Sun that it, too, is launching an inquiry.

"We are currently looking into this matter and are seeking information from Sony," a spokesperson said. "We will determine next steps once we have a full understanding of the incident."

Unfortunately for Sony, the worst may be yet to come. "European countries are going to go crazy and be all over this," Dan Burk, a professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, told Reuters. "They are absolutely obsessed about companies holding personal information."

The increasing attention of government bodies is just the latest wrinkle in the increasingly convoluted timeline of the PlayStation Network outage and data leak. Earlier today, the first lawsuit over the matter was filed, with an Alabama man seeking class-action status on behalf of all PlayStation users whose accounts may have been compromised.

i don't think Sony is going to lose a lot of its customers over this. If Sony handles this properly and it looks they are actually showing that they can, then it actually might make more users come to the ps3.

Also think about it like this, PSN was breached and now they are doing MAJOR upgrades to make sure this doesn't happen again. (If it does then they might as well shut down PSN as there will be multiple lawsuits and that will just be the beginning)

Sony should have done this from the beginning but finally they are. i just hoper my account info doesn't get owned due to this debacle.

All this must be costing Sony sooooo much. No PS Store, enlisting the FBI, and losing the customer's trust. These are dark days for Sony.