In April of 2011, Sony learned that their PSN (Playstation Network) had been hacked. They learned of the problem, tried to rebuild their network, and failed to tell those who were members of the network that the reason it was down was a cyber attack. They neglected to tell people that their accounts were compromised, as was their personal information. It took weeks for all of the information finally to come out, and even longer for the network to return to normal.
Sony was not ready for something like this. Although they claim they had security measures in place, they seemed quite lax. Most computer security experts would tell you that the site would have been quite simple to take down because they didn’t have proper security, and they didn’t have a plan in place in case something like that were to occur.
The group “Anonymous” known for their hacking attacks on other companies denied that they were responsible for this attack. However, the working of their communications made it seem as though it was possible that some of their members carried out the attack, although the group as a whole didn’t sanction the assault.
One would think that Sony learned from this, but it was only a few months later that another attack occurred. This attack compromised the accounts of nearly 100,000 people. This attack succeeded in verifying passwords and account information. Sony says that they were able to lock those accounts temporarily. They’ve also announced that they would work with users regarding any fraudulent purchases made on credit cards with numbers stolen from the accounts.
Sony says that they want their customers to have tougher passwords on their site to reduce the possibility of this happening again. However, a hacker will be able to bypass these passwords unless Sony is able to implement better overall security. Hopefully, they’ve done this and have a better system in place to keep their customers safe.