Now that the Playstation Network is back online, the great downplaying by Sony has begun. Sony CEO Howard Stringer has been making the rounds in the media world, talking about the massive security fail, and in his eyes, it's not that big of a deal. He calls it a 'hiccup', something that happens to all large networks.
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2007-01-18
Unfortunately, while the line of reasoning that you've never been hacked before, so you thought that you were secure makes no sense, it will probably fly with at some of the less-educated - and particularly less tech-savvy - folk out there. Fortunately, those who were directly impacted will likely be far less forgiving about it. But as ridiculous as this PR campaign is, it's likely that it'll have some positive effect for them.
I just hope that they get some seriously negative legal and monetary consequences for their "hickup." If the hickups were really as bad as Sony's "hickup," you'd have to go to the hospital every time that you had them.
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Hackers working for a salary; heck, Hackers simply given permission. Discovery and information sharing tends to be a primary interest of real Hackers which can often outweigh monetary motivations. A bug bounty certainly wouldn't hurt though.
With the majority of Hackers being ethical property respecting people, we don't even need to specify cheesy hat colors. Technically, the Hacking ends in the person's home lab when they discovery something new. Any criminal use of that knowledge is simply a repetition of the prior discovery. Repeating a method previously discovered by a Hacker doesn't make a criminal a Hacker anymore than taking an Aspirin makes one a Chemist or Pharmacist.
Not to take this threat off topic down a well trodden path; Sony, and many other organizations, could benefit significantly by tapping the natural resources of the Hacker community rather than vilifying and attacking it.
Member since:
2005-07-13
"...Billy Johnson was hit my a meteor this week. The world health organization down played Billy's injury and came out today and stating that 'people have been around for many thousands of years without being seriously damaged/impaled by meteors, so clearly we were fairly secure against them..."
Member since:2006-02-15
"...and having your whole body burned to piece and brains splattered on the ground are clearly just minor hickups. We re-structured him with very advanced technology [present picture of a bobhead figure] and we can proudly say he's just as good and healthy as ever, if not even better."
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Although considering how much more common getting hacked is...
"I've never been in a car accident so I don't need to wear a seat-belt and I'm sure there will be plenty of time to prepare when the time comes. Smashing your head against the windshield is just a minor hiccup anyway."
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2009-10-23
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2009-09-09
Well kudos to them. I hope that they this time their servers are secure, but I really wish Sony would just drop the arrogant attitude already. Just the way that they put off that it's not biggie makes me feel as though they really don't take responsiblity for making sure keeping data is secure and that it isn't a priority to them.
Edited 2011-05-18 01:10 UTC
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The most common thing about common sense, is it ain't so common! Putting the janitor in at CEO would be the first sign of common sense in the whole debacle!
On the other hand ,putting the Legal department and Marketing department in charge of explaining your huge flagellation of air (or hiccup), makes no sense at all.
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2009-05-22
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2007-09-06
No, no system is 100% secure unless turned off, encased in concrete and burried somewhere the depth where the earth's crust solidifies.
However, knowingly running an outdated and unpatched version of the web server software? Really?
Sensative data stored unencrypted? Really?
You where shocked when a criminal broke in through vulnerable software you neglected to maintain? Really?
Come on Sony; you didn't even put in the minimum effort required to responsibly store user data. That's what makes this a big deal. If this was crossing the street, you didn't wait for the light or even bother to look both ways before stepping out into blatantly obvious traffic.
Here's a fun thought; maybe in the future, you protect your customer's personal information with even a modicom of the zeal you direct at things like court actions against your own customer base. Try that and next time you have a security breach, we'll be a little more understanding. Maybe give your IT folks the same kind of budget you give your lawyers; just for kicks.
The issue is not that you had a breach.. it's that you had a forseeable breach which could have easily been mitigated.
Member since:
2006-06-05
I thought the whole "old version of apache" thing was debunked?
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/09/report-sonys-psn-servers-were-up-...
At any rate, Yeah you don't call it a hiccup. Sure, they aren't the only one out there with less than stellar network security and I'm sure if a concentrated attacked where to happen they would go down just as easy as PSN (the sad part is I'm talking even that of financial institutions) but to down play it to that of a blip....truely silly.
Maybe it is time for that CEO change to happen?
Member since:
2006-05-19