Sony Archives - John Sileo, Cyber Security Training

Data Breach Expert Sileo Talks to Fox Business

Victim of a Cyber Attack? What You Should Tell Customers

By Donna Fuscaldo, Fox Business

It seems like every day consumers are learning of data breeches from companies like Sega, Sony and Google. Major corporations like these tend to have the funds and resources to recover from an attack, but for small businesses, that’s often not the case.

A slow response and lack of communication with customers are among the missteps many small businesses make when facing an attack, both of which can cause irreparable damage to the business.

“When consumers are a victim of ID fraud based on interaction with a small business, 1 in 3 never come back,” said Phil Blank, senior analyst for security and fraud at Javelin Strategy & Research.

Sony Data Breach Grows by 25 Million – $1 Billion Price Tag

Sony just admitted this week that their Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) division, which they though was not affected by the recent breach, has also been compromised. They believe that the hackers stole personal information from an additional 25 million users and that the breach included credit card information.

In an unrelated article, Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Nobuo Kurahashi estimated the cost of Sony’s recovery from the data breaches to be approximately $1.25 billion:

Kurahashi estimates that the data breach will cost Sony about Y100 billion, or $1.25 billion from lost business, various compensation costs and new investments–assuming that no additional security problems emerge. The cyber attacks on Sony in recent weeks involved the theft of personal data that include names, passwords and addresses from accounts on its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment gaming services. Sony has also said that more than 10 million credit-card numbers may have been compromised.

Sony PlayStation Network User Information Hacked

Sony Corp. on Tuesday admitted that hackers have obtained personal data and possibly credit card information of tens of millions of people who have registered for PlayStation Network, the company’s online game and movie service, as well as its Qriocity digital music service.

PlayStation is a fun game, data breach is not.

As of March 31st, the Sony PlayStation Network has about 77 million accounts. These accounts link users to the network to obtain downloads and access online movies through services like Netflix. While Sony states that not all of the 77 million accounts are active accounts and some individuals have multiple accounts, they are not denying that a breach of information occurred.

The company spokesman, Patrick Seybold, admitted that the hackers not only gained such information as names, addresses, phone numbers, user names, birth dates, email addresses and passwords of registrants; but they are unsure if credit card information was compromised as well. Update: Sony recently announced that an additional 25 million records were breached.