In Sony We Trust

It has been over a week and a half since Sony took PSN offline because of the massive theft of personal data by hackers. Considering the huge scale of the security breach many gamers were justifiably angry at Sony. Not only did it take a week for the company bring the security breach to light but PSN users’ personal data was never encrypted to begin with. While Sony executives have insisted that credit card information was encrypted they’re not sure if that information was stolen as well. In fact, the company suggests that users monitor their credit reports for suspicious activity. In light of all of Sony’s recent troubles and slow response to informing users the company’s official response to the situation would have to go a long way to assuage anger. In today’s early morning press conference Sony’s second in command, Kaz Hirai, outlined the steps the company is taking compensate users for the PSN downtime and security breach.

First of all, PSN and Qriocity will be restored later this week. Although an exact date was not given the restoration of services is planned in the form of phased rollouts that will take place over the course of a month. New security measures have been implemented and include enhanced levels of data protection and encryption, automated software monitoring and additional firewalls among other changes. The process of moving the physical location of the data center has been expedited, as the move had been planned for months. As for logging into PSN when it’s finally restored users will be forced into a firmware update and will be immediately required to change their passwords. Fortunately passwords can only be changed on the PS3 the PSN account was activated on or a validated e-mail address. As of this writing there’s no word on if the same will apply to PSP-only users or if they’ll have to change their passwords via e-mail.

As for compensation for the downtime and security breach Sony is offering a number of free services. The biggest offering would be the complementary assistance in enrolling in identity theft protection programs. Next would be Sony’s “Welcome Back” program for all PSN users. The program will include a free download, a free month of PSN Plus for regular users, an additional month of Plus for existing users and an additional month of Qriocity for existing users of that service. While all of the compensation sounds good, exact details are still unknown as this moment.

If anything Sony’s compensation is a testament to how big of a deal the PSN downtime and security breach is. Even though the hackers are ultimately to blame, a lot of fault does lie with Sony and their weak security. Nothing is truly beyond the reach of a determined hacker and the same could have happened to either Microsoft or Nintendo. It was still inexcusable for Sony not to have taken more care with PSN users’ personal data. The repercussions of the massive theft of unencrypted personal data may be felt for months or even years by gamers. Still, it is nice to see Sony actually apologize (with a deep bow no less), own up to the problem, compensate its customers and vow to work with various government agencies to attempt to track down the hackers.

Some gamers may never trust Sony again, even after the company’s attempts to make things right. For others all will be forgiven once PSN is restored. For Sony the future implications of such a large security breach may not be known for quite some time– not counting the lawsuits. A few lessons can be learned from this entire incident. Security can never be taken too lightly and the loss of personal and financial related data is always a risk when doing business online.

If you have credit or debt card information attached to PSN hopefully you’ve alerted your bank to possible fraud risk. I would personally recommend taking Sony up on that complementary identity theft protection offer if you don’t already ID theft protection. In the meantime, if the PS3 is your only console you should relax and enjoy a few single player games or even Netflix until PSN returns.

Read Sony’s full press release here and listen to audio of the conference here.