As of 10pm yesterday, Sony has partially restored the PlayStation Network and Qriocity, almost one month since it was shutdown following a security breach on April 17th.

Gamers can now play online, use the chat service and download music. All other services are still down, and the PSN is still completely down in Asia.

Following the attack, Sony confirmed that over 101 million users have had their personal data compromised, including names, profiles, addresses and credit card details.

Sony promised to return service on May 7th but could not as the Network continued to remain unsecured.

Bloomberg says the company "boosted security for PlayStation Network and Qriocity by increasing the number of firewalls between servers and adding software to monitor intrusions and system vulnerabilities."

Sony also added a new chief information security officer.

The company says all services, in all regions, will be fully functional by May 31st.

As a compromise for the downtime, Sony is offering all users 1 free year of identity theft protection and insurance, two free PS3 games, and a free month to PlayStation Plus.

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According to Internet security expert John Bumgarner, Sony's computer networks are still not fully secured, even 28 days after hackers attacked the PSN and SOE, compromising the personal data of 101 million gamers.

Bumgarner says he found "a handful of security flaws" in the company's networks while studying its systems online. The security expert apparently found a "potential bonanza for hackers by using little more than a web browser, Google's search engine and a basic understanding of Internet security systems."

The expert knows what he is talking about, being the chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit and a U.S. military special operations veteran.

Over the past week, Bumgarner says that Sony did fix three of the five flaws he had found.

Several glaring flaws still remain, however, and that is without the expert trying to break into password-protected sites or exploit any vulnerabilities.

As a small compromise for the downtime, Sony is offering all users 1 free year of identity theft protection and insurance, two free PS3 games, and a free month to PlayStation Plus.

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AT&T has confirmed a record break-up fee if regulators do not approve its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

The carrier will pay $6 billion in fees and other benefits to T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom, a record by a large stretch, implying AT&T has a strong belief the deal will be approved.

Says a Deutsche Telekom spokesman (via Reuters):

$3 billion would flow directly in cash, but Deutsche Telekom would also receive spectrum and a national roaming agreement. The company did not put a value on that, but according to analysts' estimates the spectrum and roaming agreement would amount to $3 billion.

The spectrum is likely worth the bulk share, or $2 billion, with the roaming agreement worth the rest.

That being said, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann says he believes the deal will be approved sometime before June of 2012.

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