The Australian government is planning a law in the wake of Sony's PSN hacking disaster. The new ruling is designed to force companies to disclose any privacy breaches to the public. 1,560,791 Australian accounts were caught in the mess, and officials in the country are pissed.
Privacy minister Brendan O'Connor has publicly criticized Sony, saying it was "very concerned" about the way in which the situation was handled. However, he added that other companies have been doing a bad job of protecting customer data, and everybody needs to tighten their security.
Sony insists it didn't know that details were compromised before it made the problem public, but that hasn't stopped politicians from getting pissed. Clearly, a lot of people still want answers.
Privacy laws to be beefed up following Sony attack [WA Today]
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Contest:
3:20 PM on 05.03.2011 | 
Yup, that sounds like Australia.
The simple truth is, intrusions happen all the time. Low level hacking attempts get past the first line of defense quite often. We don't get told that, of course, because log checks show that nothing was compromised, but do companies have to blow the sirens on initial discovery, anyway?
If we get "your data may have been stolen" emails and media websites light up every time someone pokes into a DMZ or peeks behind the first firewall, then I can't help but think that Australian consumers are in for a very panic-filled, eye-opening time.
"Sony insists it didn't know that details were compromised before it made the problem public"
That's the EXACT reason Sony should have notified everyone right away. Because they DIDN'T KNOW. Not knowing does not equal "oh, everyone must be o.k." Not knowing means there's a 50/50 chance.
Just more proof that Sony doesn't give two shits about it's customers.
"We have no idea what the issue is yet, but let's just assume the worst and make an announcement to send our customers into a total panic without having any facts at all." Uh, yeah. Great plan ya got there, boss.
I think it's pretty absurd for people to think Sony lied about not knowing personal data might have been stolen. The sooner they told the public, the fewer the people that would have legitimate problems because of it.
I suppose it's possible, but it doesn't make much sense..
If that's your proof that Sony doesn't care, then do you understand that no one else cares, as well? How do you feel about that? Are you mad at everyone else? No one hits the panic button on first discovery. NO ONE.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't have been notified sooner, as Sony's consultants began to realize the scope of the intrusion, but "right away"? It doesn't happen.
Also "not knowing means there's a 50/50 chance" makes no sense at all, not unless they knew right away how far the intruder has gone, which they obviously did not. That's like saying "someone has gotten past the main gate, so there is a 50/50 chance the president is dead".
There should be an investigation by a governing body, along with disclosure of the investigation results, at which point professionals (hopefully not politicians) can tells us what was done right and what was done wrong, and at what point Sony knew that personal data might have been compromised. I've gotten kind of tired of people/media with absolutely no understanding of network security or access to any actual details telling me what I should think about the situation.
1.5 million accounts? Sony said only 12,700 credit card numbers were compromised, and not all of those (if any) were Australian cards. That's a huge difference from 1.5 mil. Unless they're creating a new law because those 1,560,791 PSN members were upset that they couldn't log into their accounts (unlikely), it should probably be noted that very few Australians had their information actually breached as a result of this attack.
Source: http://www.destructoid.com/new-attack-on-sony-loses-12-700-credit-card-numbers-200240.phtml
"Excuse me, your honor. Two YOUTHS."
i guess you could say Sony was the test subject in this incident, and companies will start taking precautions now even though they should have done it from the very start.
still can't wait for PSN to back up :P
I failed to realize that Sony let itself get hacked twice.
>.< Fuck.