Sony Fined by British Gov’t Over 2011 Hacks

By Brian P Rubin | 24 January 2013 | 11 Comments

Remember back in 2011 when Sony’s PlayStation Network was breached by black-hatted hacker-people, and users’ data got all vulnerable and stuff? We all remember it—we just don’t really care that much about it anymore.

Well, it seems that the British government cares, as they’ve fined Sony £250,000, or $396,100, for its poor showing in preventing the breach in the first place. Britain’s deputy commissioner and director of data protection, David Smith, offered up this statement regarding the fine, and Sony’s failure:

“There’s no disguising that this is a business that should have known better. It is a company that trades on its technical expertise, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe.”

True. ALL TRUE. So there you go, Sony. It’s been two years since the hacks, and you’ve gotten your fine. Now don’t do it again. I guess. Time for tea and strumpets.

Via CBS News

11 Comments

Posted by Mugenite on 24 January 13 at 1:04pm

“…this is a business that should have known better.”

You… expected Sony… to anticipate hackers infiltrating their security? And TWO years later? Did they feel lonely and decide to sue Sony to get some attention? I think even the customers hit by that event pretty much forgot about the whole thing.
- Posted by George. G. Crickmore, Esq on 24 January 13 at 3:58pm
  
  Likely two years as a result of a government inquiry into the incident. I say fair play to my government in this action, though sony will likely appeal and get off, though they may end up spending their fine amount on the legal suit. I have a right not to have my confidential info stolen, so if the government doesn’t take action against trusted businesses who put on a poor show, who will?
  
  Oh and Brian, we ‘have’ crumpets with our tea, the strumpets come later.
  - Posted by Brian P Rubin on 24 January 13 at 7:55pm
    
    Not a fan of Dumb and Dumber, I see.
    - Posted by George. G. Crickmore, Esq. on 25 January 13 at 4:52pm
      
      Fair play.
- Posted by soulprovider on 24 January 13 at 9:56pm
  
  Considering the way sony handled the whole mess and considering there business is technology and information they really should have known better. They should have had a contingency plan incase something like this happened where they alerted the authorities of the intrusion and a safety measure alerted their customers of the supposed hack even before they acknowledged possible theft of credit card data. Consideiring that it took them two weeks to alert anyone i’m amazed there weren’t more fines.
Posted by Clover on 24 January 13 at 1:58pm

Oh… i hate my country.
Posted by René Mathias Rojas on 24 January 13 at 11:50pm

What right do they have to fine them for that? That’s like getting a fine for having your wallet, house, or car stolen.
- Posted by Ring127 on 25 January 13 at 4:44pm
  
  No, it’s more like you getting sued for having your car, house or wallet stolen when it had hundreds of thousands of other people’s personal information and credit cards.
  - Posted by KlassicChubZero on 28 January 13 at 11:39am
    
    @Ring127
    I wish to make love to your comment.
Posted by Eleglas on 25 January 13 at 3:18am

The government started an Inquiry about this when it happened (these things take a while) which is why they’ve decided to do this. Now I am not a fan of my Government, damn Tories, but I think they were right to do this.

Although this, along with the current European debate is making less and less popular.

PS: Brian, that picture is of Sir Patrick Moore, a well loved Astronomer in the UK, he only died last month, bit soon for the joke funny as it was.
Posted by KlassicChubZero on 25 January 13 at 8:05am

The never ending story: Sony edition