According to Sony CEO Howard Stringer, his company never thought it’d be all that likely to see a PSN hack attack — like the one that’s dominated headlines for the past month. Sony thought that being free gave the PSN some sort of immunity with hackers, vastly underestimating the tendency for people to be assholes.
“Obviously our network security didn’t stop the attack and we’re trying to understand why, and we’ve made big strides in bolstering our security,” he said. “… We have a network that gave people services free.It didn’t seem like the likeliest place for an attack.”
Stringer admitted he didn’t understand the scale of the breach at first, but doesn’t feel he should be held accountable for that: “I really don’t think I could apologize for not knowing. It’s a whole new experience for everybody at this scale.”
I’m not sure how Sony’s complacency will sit with others, who believe that the company’s “robust” security wasn’t robust enough. The fact is, free or not, you need to be ready for this kind of thing if you’re handling personal details and taking money online. You don’t earn goodwill from hackers and thieves just because you don’t charge them to play Killzone.
Sony Chief Stringer Blindsided by Hackers [Bloomberg]
