Wednesday, Dec. 07, 2011
Post Hack, Sony's Network Goes Dark for a Month
You would think one of the world's largest technology companies could play defense against hackers. Apparently not. In mid-April, Sony had to shut down its Playstation Network, which allows users to purchase games and connect with other gamers, when it was attacked by notorious hacktivists LulzSec. It took the company more than a month and nearly $175 million to get its gaming network back up and running. Worse, the hackers were able access account information and possibly the credit-card numbers of 100 million users. Hacks happen, but Sony made matters worse by storing its user passwords and account information in unencrypted format, which LulzSec gleefully pointed out.