Sony Europe fined £250,000 over PSN Hack

[GaryOPA]

UK regulator says Sony 'let everybody down' regarding the hack...

UK regulators have fined Sony for 'preventable' 2011 PlayStation Network hack. Sony will appeal.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has been fined £250,000 by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over the widespread 2011 PlayStation Network data breach, something that the regulatory body says "could have been prevented."

The ICO, said Sony had put the personal information of its customers at "unnecessary risk" and had "let everybody down" for failing to ensure such information could not be accessed during the hack in April 2011...

"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," ICO deputy commissioner David Smith said. "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."

"There's no disguising that this is a business that should have known better," Smith said. "It is a company that trades on its technical expertise, and there's no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe."

Now, it looks like Sony has plans to appeal the ICO's decision:

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe strongly disagrees with the ICO’s ruling and is planning an appeal.

SCEE notes, however, that the ICO recognises Sony was the victim of “a focused and determined criminal attack,” that “there is no evidence that encrypted payment card details were accessed,” and that “personal data is unlikely to have been used for fraudulent purposes” following the attack on the PlayStation Network.

Criminal attacks on electronic networks are a real and growing aspect of 21st century life and Sony continually works to strengthen our systems, building in multiple layers of defence and working to make our networks safe, secure and resilient. The reliability of our network services and the security of our consumers’ information are of the utmost importance to us, and we are appreciative that our network services are used by even more people around the world today than at the time of the criminal attack.

As you may remember, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai was one of several high-ranking executives who personally apologised for the hack, and the company eventually offered its users a selection of free games as compensation for the downtime...

What do you think?

NEWS SOURCE #1: Sony Europe fined 250000 for 2011 Playstation network hacking (via) GameSpot
NEWS SOURCE #2: Sony fined 250,000 for preventable PSN breach (via) GamesIndustry

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[TomatOsaUce]

Im sure Kaz could just give them one of his toilet rolls... he wipes his arse with 100 dollar bills

[gDrive]

Im sure Kaz could just give them one of his toilet rolls... he wipes his arse with 100 dollar bills

ROFPMSL!

Oh and BTW, £250000 fine? That's like pocket money by a multi-million dollar conglomerate's standards.

[Misfit]

That money should have gone to Graf and GioHort

[galneon]

Those are some deep bows...

Definitely not shit bows.

Larry David would approve.

[ChipD]

What do you think?

I think thats awesome! I only hope other countrys follow sue-T. Somebody needs to stick it where the sun dont shine on this creedy corporation. $250,000 to them is pocket change, and it just shows how greedy they are to appeal it.