FSU: Reaction to Industry News - The Sony Fiasco

Sony has been in the news quite a bit over the last few weeks. First, their PlayStation Network was hacked, and 77 million accounts had personal data stolen. Sony was quiet about the situation for a week before finally telling their customers what happened. Then, Sony Online Entertainment was hacked, and 24.6 million more accounts had personal data stolen. Again, Sony kept quiet for a while before explaining the situation. In the meantime, the entire network was down for 3½ weeks.


Now, the PlayStation Network is up, and Sony says everything’s fixed and we have no need to worry. Then Ars Technica posts a report that the PlayStation Network password reset has an exploit. Unfortunately, I’d already reset mine. Irritation doesn’t begin to cover the range of emotions I feel towards Sony at this point.

I know I’m not alone, either. I read the blogs, news posts, and forum discussions. The community seems polarized between those who’ve forgiven Sony and those who are still upset. The “Welcome Back” package Sony unveiled didn’t seem to help close the schism either. For some the package was too little, too late. Others were grateful to get anything at all and chastised those who complained saying that Sony didn’t have to offer its customers anything in the way of restitution.

What most seem to overlook is that Sony is not blameless in all this. They didn’t secure their network.

Whether it was one hacker or 200, it didn’t matter. Their network was vulnerable, and it still is. The recent password exploit shows that they’ve not found every hole, exploit, or backdoor into the system. Granted, a hacker only has to find one to exploit while Sony has to protect against them all.
It still leaves me feeling very doubtful about the PlayStation Network and Sony. I trusted my information to them, and it was messed with not once or twice but three times. This level of trust is hard to rebuild when it’s been so thoroughly torn down.

And just when I thought it was finished it seems that Sony has suffered yet another rash of hacks. Customer information was stolen yet again, although, they claim credit card numbers weren’t accessed. I’m not sure if I believe them any longer. They are claiming it’s a case of any and every bored hacker taking advantage of their vulnerability. Again, I don’t believe it. I also can’t believe they still have holes in their network. They’ve lost all credibility in my eyes.

Credit where credit is due:
Cifaldi, Frank. (2011, April 26). playstation network accounts compromised, personal information stolen. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34305/PlayStation_Network_Accounts_Compromised_Personal_Information_Stolen.php(Link broken as of February 2023.) 

Koh, Yoree. (2011, May 01). Sony’s hack response: some answers, some questions remain. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/05/01/sonys-hack-response-some-answers-some-questions-remain/

Sherr, Ian. (2011, May 02). Hackers breach second sony service. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704436004576299491191920416.html

Webster, Andrew. (2011, May 18). Report: psn password resets exploited, accounts compromised again. Retrieved from http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/report-playstation-network-passwords-exploited-accounts-compromised.ars

Ionescu, Daniel. (2011, May 25). New sony hack nabs user data of 2000 customers. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/228632/new_sony_hack_nabs_user_data_of_2000_customers.html (Link broken as of February 2023.)