Sony Hacked! (Again)

Sony is under fire again for a recent breach involving customer information. Sony announced Tuesday that hackers broke into at least 93,000 customer accounts. Although thanks to new security measures, no credit card information was lost.

How was it hacked?

Sony stated that this attack was carried out by hackers collecting account names and passwords of their customers from other websites that were not associated with Sony. Since many people use the same account name and password for multiple sites, logging into Sony’s was easy once they had the information.

Sony’s new Chief of Information Security Officer, Phil Reitinger, made an announcement on Tuesday of the breach on Sony’s Blog. He claimed that the majority of log-in attempts by the hackers failed, although they did manage to sign into 60,000 accounts on the Sony Entertainment Network and the PlayStation Network. Another 33,000 were successful on Sony Online Entertainment.

Is this Sony’s fault?

Personally, I would say “No”. If this attack was accomplished by taking advantage of Sony’s customer-base’s poor security practices, Sony should not be held liable for something outside of their control. Additionally, the safeguards put into place preventing credit card information from being accessed was definitely a step in the right direction.

It is also worth noting the quickness that Sony responded to this attack with a public announcement. Unlike the previous hack that Sony was a victim of, this one was made public within 1-2 days (Opposed to one week) of the actual breach. Informing the public in such a timely manner is a great way for Sony to show that it’s security practices have improved within the last year.

What do you think?

Do you feel that yet another security breach at Sony has continued to damage their already tarnished reputation? Or do you believe that Sony has responded appropriately to their wake-up call that they received last April? Leave comments below and let me know what you think.