Netflix has confirmed that it has fired a call center worker that was caught stealing credit card numbers from customers of the rental service.

The data theft was discovered on April 4th and the worker was promptly fired.

Says Netflix Senior Counsel Sharon Williamson in a letter to the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General:

The worker accessed over approximately the past two months, without authorization, the credit card information of some Netflix customers who spoke with the individual over the telephone.

Adds head spokesmen Steve Swasey:

We do everything we can to safeguard our members' personal data and privacy, and when there's an issue like this we deal with it swiftly and decisively.

Netflix has only confirmed that two people had their info stolen, but there may be more.

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Sony has submitted their written responses to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce over the massive cyber-attack that has taken down the PSN for two weeks and exposed personal info for up to 77 million gamers.

You can view the PDFs of the report, "The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers" here.

The most shocking part of the report is the fact that they imply the group "Anonymous" in the attack, even though the group has denied any involvement.

Says Sony:

Sony has been the victim of a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack.

We discovered that the intruders had planted a file on one of our Sony Online Entertainment servers named "Anonymous" with the words "We are Legion."

By April 25, forensic teams were able to confirm the scope of the personal data they believed had been taken, and could not rule out whether credit card information had been accessed. On April 26, we notified customers of those facts.

As of today, the major credit card companies have not reported any fraudulent transactions that they believe are the direct result of this cyber attack.

Protecting individuals' personal data is the highestpriority and ensuring that the Internet can be made secure for commerce is also essential. Worldwide, countries and businesses will have to come together to ensure the safety of commerce over the Internet and find ways to combat cybercrime and cyber terrorism.

We are taking a number of steps to prevent future breaches, including enhanced levels of data protection and encryption; enhanced ability to detect software intrusions, unauthorized access and unusual activity patterns; additional firewalls; establishment of a new data center in an undisclosed location with increased security; and the naming of a new Chief Information Security Officer.

Sony says the service should be back within a week, and will be offering some goodies as reported here: PSN "Welcome Back"

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Nintendo has announced it will begin officially selling the Wii console for $150 bundled, starting May 15th.

The bundle includes a Wii remote, Mario Kart, and a steering wheel.

Nintendo will continue to sell the $169.99 bundle (which includes Wii Sports Resort and Wii Sports) until inventory runs out. From there, that price point will be discontinued.

Says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime:

There is quite a bit more volume to be sold on the Wii home console. And the way we are going to get there is by offering the system at this low price and by including a key software title like Mario Kart."

Mario Kart has sold over 10 million copies, making it one of the most popular games on the console.

Overall the Wii has sold 86 million Wii consoles, to date.

The Wii 2 (codename Stream) is expected to be released in early 2012 with specs that put the PS3 and Xbox 360 to shame.

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Popular retailer Express has begun selling its entire catalog via Facebook today.

Users to the Shop Express tab of the company's Facebook Page can browse and purchase all the merchandise, just as if they were on the official site.

Adding to its normal features, users can also "like" clothing, and recommend items via posts on friend's walls.

Your account, along with real-time inventory and pricing, is synced across all of Express' sites and mobile apps, allowing for seamless shopping, says the company.

Says the company (via Mash):

We continue to look for ways that the customer can interact with the brand on their own schedule and at their convenience, so that we bring down as many barriers as possible.

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Apple has introduced the refreshed line of iMacs this week, running on quad-core processors, adding a built-in HD webcam for FaceTime and Intel's new Thunderbolt interface.

The new computers will be available as 21.5-inch (1920x1080 resolution) or 27-inch (2560x1440), and each are LED-backlit.

Starting at $1199, the 21.5-inch has a 2.5GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache, 4GB RAM, a small 500GB HDD and a 512MB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD6750M video card.

The more expensive model starts at $1499 and has a 2.7GHz i5, a 1TB HDD and an AMD Radeon HD 6770M. It can also be upgraded (very expensively) to a 2.8Ghz i7 processor, a 2TB HDD and a 256GB SSD as a secondary (or primary) drive.

Moving up to the 27-inch models, starting at $1699 you can get a configuration with a 2.7GHz i5, a 1TB HDD and an AMD Radeon HD 6770M.

The most expensive base model starts at $1999, bringing a 3.1GHz i5 and a 1GB AMD Radeon HD6970M. That model can be modified to add a 256GB SSD, a monster 3.4Ghz i7 and a 2GB version of the video card.

Each computer has a mini display port, a FireWire 800 port, 4 USB 2.0 ports an SDXC card slot, gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and an Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. Additionally, each has 2 new Thunderbolt ports and built-in HD webcams for FaceTime.

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Warner Bros. has announced the acquisition of the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes and its parent, the "social" movie site Flixster.

As part of the deal, Flixster will still run independently but will expand beyond its current movie discovery niche.

It is unclear how much the studio paid, but WSJ reports the value of the sites at $60-90 million.

Says Warner:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group will utilize the powerful Flixster brand and technical expertise to launch a number of initiatives designed to grow digital content ownership, including the recently announced consumer application "Digital Everywhere." This studio-agnostic application will be the ultimate destination for consumers to organize and access their entire digital library from anywhere on the device of their choice, as well as to share recommendations and discover new content. The Flixster acquisition and "Digital Everywhere," combined with the Studio's support of the UltraViolet format are all part of an overall strategy to give consumers even more freedom, utility and value for their digital purchases.

Both Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes are very popular with RT getting 12 million unique visitors per month and Flixster saying its multi-platform app has been downloaded over 35 million times.

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