Sony Hacked Again... and Again... and Again... and Again ~ Hacks N Cracks

Sony Hacked Again... and Again... and Again... and Again

Sony has been hacked again, further bruising its tarnished image, as the company struggles to prove it can secure its networks.

Hackers snuck a phishing trap onto Sony's Thailand website that directed users to a fake credit card site that prompted people for their card details. After being notified of the exploit by a security expert, the company removed the scam.

Then Sony announced that hackers made off with over $1,000 worth of virtual points from users of the company's So-net Entertainment ISP on May 16 and 17, but according to a spokesperson personal data was apparently not compromised.

"At this point in our investigations, we have not confirmed any data leakage," said Keisuke Watabe, So-net Entertainment spokesperson. "We have not found any sign of a possibility that a third party has obtained members' names, address, birth dates and phone numbers."

Watabe also said that although it was impossible to rule out a connection with the earlier hacks that exposed over 100 million customer records, this appeared to be an unrelated incident.

The two gaffes are nothing compared to the earlier attacks that forced Sony to shut down its PlayStation network for weeks -- U.S. media might not even have picked up the stories if not for their proximity to last month's fiasco. But their timing is unfortunate for the company as it tries to restore customer faith in its services and even minor security slips take on larger significance in people's minds.

U.S. legislators considering laws to ensure that companies properly protect user data may also see the ongoing hacking as evidence that Sony and perhaps other companies can't be relied on to police themselves. A House subcommittee on data privacy already appears to be growing impatient with the time the company is taking to address questions about the earlier attacks.

How useful any legislation the does emerge will actually be is impossible to predict: network security's complexity and furious speed of development may not lend it to being shaped by laws. But frustration in government and the public makes it likely that some effort to codify best practices will emerge this year, hopefully giving companies like Sony still more motivation to plug security holes in its networks.

SOURCE: mobiledia