Sony in da Hoooouse!

​As the epic PSN outage of 2011 continues, Sony's battle with rebuilding its network rode shotgun with some legal concerns yesterday, primarily in the form of a response to the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the incident and Sony's actions following the initial cyber attack that got this whole mess started.

 

Sony's Kazuo Hirai, Chairman of the Board of Directors, submitted written answers to questions posed by the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade of the Hose in a hearing on "The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers." Hirai, nor any Sony representative, chose to actually testify at the hearing.

 

Hirai's responses, as well as some fallout from the hearing, can be found after the break. Put simply and in a way the internets can more easily understand, the subcommittee's response went a little something like this.

 

Hirai's letter to the subcommittee is available in full at the following link, but a subsequent PlayStation Blog post summed up the information by highlighting "four key principles" to Sony's response following the cyber-attack: 1) Act with care and caution. 2) Provide relevant information to the public when it has been verified. 3) Take responsibility for our obligations to our customers. 4) Work with law enforcement authoritites.

 

Hirai went on to point out that Sony has "been the victim of a very carefully planned, very profesional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack." While the hacker group Anonymous has denied involvement in the recent attack, however, it was also revealed that a file was recently discovered on the Sony Online Entertainment servers named "Anonymous," with the message "We are Legion."

 

Another point of interest is that, as of the hearing, no reports of fraudulent transactions believed to be the result of the cyber attack have been reported by any major credit card companies.

 

Hirai went on to inform the subcommittee about Sony's efforts following the hack, a summary of which can be found within the linked PlayStation Blog post.

 

Representative and subcommittee chair Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) responded, stating that Sony's efforts following the attack were "half-hearted and half-baked."

 

Industry Gamers reported on Mack's statements with the following highlights:

 

"[Sony and Epsilon] must shoulder some of the blame for these stunning thefts, which shake the confidence of everyone who types in a credit card number and hits enter."

 

"I am deeply troubled by these latest data breaches, and the decision by both Epsilon and Sony not to testify today. This is unacceptable."

 

"Sony, meanwhile, says it's too busy with its ongoing investigation to appear. Well, what about the millions of American consumers who are still twisting in the wind because of these breaches? They deserve some straight answers and I am determined to get them."

 

"Yet for me, the single most important question is simply this: Why weren't Sony's customers notified sooner of the cyber attack?"