Sony fined over major hacking scandal

Sony has received a fine as punishment for the major hacking of the Playstation Network in 2011.

The Information Commissioner’s Office investigated the incident and has concluded Sony failed to keep security software to an acceptable standard – a compliance failure that has cost the company £250,000.

Reasons for lack or compliance were that Sony had not utilised up-to-date security software, and therefore had left user passwords, names, and credit card information at risk.

“If you are responsible for so many payment card details and log-in details then keeping that personal data secure has to be your priority,” said David Smith, the director of data protection at the ICO.

“In this case that just didn’t happen, and when the database was targeted – albeit in a determined criminal attack – the security measures in place were simply not good enough.”

The ICO also dubbed the Sony break-in as the “most serious it had ever seen.” However, Sony Europe plans to appeal the decision as it is believed harsh considering “there is no evidence that encrypted payment car details were accessed.”

This entire debacle all started on April 21 in 2011, with Sony initially reporting that the PSN would be down for “up to two days.”

This escalated to a full-blown shut down of the network, which lasted 24 days and limited players to offline play, or in the case of certain titles, no play whatsoever.

Affecting 77 million user accounts, the Sony hacking remains one of the largest security violations ever – and for a company the size of Sony, £250,000 barely makes a dent.