US Senator Demands Answers from Sony over Playstation Data Breach

[Black-Ops-]

Hey everyone at NGU!!

As most of you all know already "Playstation Network" is down and it's been down going on 7 day's and in other places it's been 7 day's.

Anyways, we all seen so many threads about the PSN being down, or whatever the case may be regarding Sony and other things. You can add this piece of news to the pile as it's quite interesting to read!

Below, from the US Senator himself is a letter he sent Sony, personally to CEO/President Jack Tritton.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011.

(Hartford, CT) – Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote the President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America today demanding answers over the company’s failure to notify millions of customers of a data breach in the PlayStation Network on April 20, 2011. Blumenthal noted that a breach of such a widely used service – estimated by news reports as having 50 to 75 million customers – immediately “raises concerns of data privacy, identity theft, and other misuse of sensitive personal and financial data, such as names, email addresses, and credit and debit card information.”

“When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised… I am concerned that PlayStation Network users’ personal and financial information may have been inappropriately accessed by a third party,” Blumenthal wrote in the letter. “Compounding this concern is the troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach. Although the breach occurred nearly a week ago, Sony has not notified customers of the intrusion, or provided information that is vital to allowing individuals to protect themselves from identity theft, such as informing users whether their personal or financial information may have been compromised.”

Blumenthal called for Sony to provide PlayStation Network users with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services for two years, the costs of which should be borne by the company. Additionally, he argued that affected individuals should be provided with sufficient insurance to protect them from the possible financial consequences of identity theft.

The text of the letter follows:

April 26, 2011

Mr. Jack Tretton
President and CEO
Sony Computer Entertainment America
919 East Hillsdale Boulevard
Foster City, CA USA 94404

Dear Mr. Tretton:

I am writing regarding a recent data breach of Sony’s PlayStation Network service. I am troubled by the failure of Sony to immediately notify affected customers of the breach and to extend adequate financial data security protections.

It has been reported that on April 20, 2011, Sony’s PlayStation Network suffered an “external intrusion” and was subsequently disabled. News reports estimate that 50 million to 75 million consumers – many of them children – access the PlayStation Network for video and entertainment. I understand that the PlayStation Network allows users to store credit card information online to facilitate the purchasing of content such as games and movies through the PlayStation Network. A breach of such a widely used service immediately raises concerns of data privacy, identity theft, and other misuse of sensitive personal and financial data, such as names, email addresses, and credit and debit card information.

When a data breach occurs, it is essential that customers be immediately notified about whether and to what extent their personal and financial information has been compromised. Additionally, PlayStation Network users should be provided with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services, for two years, the costs of which should be borne by Sony. Affected individuals should also be provided with sufficient insurance to protect them from the possible financial consequences of identity theft.

I am concerned that PlayStation Network users’ personal and financial information may have been inappropriately accessed by a third party. Compounding this concern is the troubling lack of notification from Sony about the nature of the data breach. Although the breach occurred nearly a week ago, Sony has not notified customers of the intrusion, or provided information that is vital to allowing individuals to protect themselves from identity theft, such as informing users whether their personal or financial information may have been compromised. Nor has Sony specified how it intends to protect these consumers.

PlayStation Network users deserve more complete information on the data breach, as well as the assurance that their personal and financial information will be securely maintained. I appreciate your prompt response on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Richard Blumenthal
United States Senate

Sources:



If you took the time to read all of that, what are your thoughts and do you agree with what he's saying, because I know I do.

Feel free comment below if you care to, I'm looking forward to any responses!

[Gotham_Shadow]

Why do so many people WANT Sony to go down? So we would be forced to buy 360 and help Microsoft's greedy asses?

People want Sony yo go down more than wanting the hackers to get caught.

Baseball players go before Congress for illegal steroid and PEDs.

Execs go before Congress for illegal money practices and fraud.

How can you equate that to Sony getting HACKED? I could see if a Sony exec stole CC info or something.

Sony F'd up sure but this is a case of blaming the victim MORE than the criminal.

Sony could have easily prevented all of this. So Sony is the one to blame. If they would have just used proper security measures, none of this would have happened. Microsoft has not had this issue before, because they used proper security protocols. Sony failed. I never stated I wanted them to "go down" [your words]. I do want them to pay for their error. Baseball players and business execs go before Congress because they did something wrong. Sony failed on many different levels, so they did wrong. Now it is time for them to answer for their failure and to pay the price for their actions (or lack of in this particular case). I want the hackers to pay the price. Seriously, I do. In this situation, it was clearly Sony's error for not taking the correct security measures and encryption methods to protect all of their consumers from this episode.

[Porter_Justice]

Sony could have easily prevented all of this. So Sony is the one to blame. If they would have just used proper security measures, none of this would have happened. Microsoft has not had this issue before, because they used proper security protocols. Sony failed. I never stated I wanted them to "go down" [your words]. I do want them to pay for their error. Baseball players and business execs go before Congress because they did something wrong. Sony failed on many different levels, so they did wrong. Now it is time for them to answer for their failure aF nd to pay the price for their actions (or lack of in this particular case). I want the hackers to pay the price. Seriously, I do. In this situation, it was clearly Sony's error for not taking the correct security measures and encryption methods to protect all of their consumers from this episode.

Fair enough but how can you quantify how Easy it is to prevent getting hacked? It took hackers 4 years to do this so obviously the hackers being smart outweighs Sony being dumb.

How do we know how easy it is to secure a network especially when hackers are trying to hack.

Its like me sitting on my couch saying how easy a 4th quarter Free Throw is.

You are blaming Sony before we hear about any major fraud. Those cases you state are apples and oranges. You are comparing crimes people KNOWINGLY committed to a company getting hacked and which revealed how supbar their security measures are.

I think its easier to hate Sony because at least we know them. We don't yet know the hackers.

[NGU Tech Head]

Tnx for the info mate

[cmms07]

When it comes election time Richard blumenthal has my vote

[warman_94]

the senator is butthurt because he can't play online and is scared about his credit card info being stoled :carling:

[I.aM.Me]

Wasn't this on the news? I wished I watched it what it told xD

---------- Post added at 09:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 PM ----------

the senator is butthurt because he can't play online and is scared about his credit card info being stoled :carling:

It'll suck if they stole a million $$ LOL