No surprise here that a class action has been filed.
A California-based firm has filed suit against Sony, accusing the company of failing to adequately protect, encrypt, and secure its customer data. The suit seeks damages for the data loss and PlayStation Network downtime.
"We bought this lawsuit on behalf of consumers to learn the full extent of Sony PlayStation Network data security practices and the data loss and to seek a remedy for consumers," Ira P. Rothken, an attorney who filed the complaint, said in a statement. "We are hopeful that Sony will take this opportunity to learn from the network vulnerabilities, provide a remedy to consumers who entrusted their sensitive data to Sony, and lead the way in data security best practices going forward."
Sony's PlayStation network has been having issues since last Wednesday, but it was not until last night that Sony confirmed that hackers had obtained personal information from the network, which possibly included credit cards. Sony said it expects to "restore some services" within a week, but did not elaborate.
"Sony's breach of its customers' trust is staggering," co-counsel J.R. Parker said. "One would think that a large multinational corporation like Sony has strong protective measures in place to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of personal information, including credit card information. Apparently, Sony doesn't."
The suit was filed on behalf of Alabama resident Kristopher Jones, who has been a PlayStation user since 2009.
The lawsuit claims that Sony was aware of vulnerabilities with its system for some time, but does not provide details.
"[Sony] has been aware for a substantial period of time that PSN was prone to catastrophic loss of data from a security breach," according ot the filing. "Nevertheless, [Sony] failed to warn its customers of the problem or tried to prevent them from suffering system suspension from security breaches and data loss."
"Sony sat silently while consumers purchased defective PlayStation consoles and PSN service without warning customers about the risks inherent in purchasing and relying upon Sony's data security," the suit continued.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384523,00.asp
