Sony's Security Nightmare Not Over, Hacked Again
At this point executives at Sony might be wishing tomorrow was in fact the rapture because it's starting to feel like the electronics giant has really ticked someone off.
According to a report from The Wall St. Journal, Sony has been hacked again. This time So-net, an internet service provider subsidiary of Sony, was the victim. The report says a hacker infiltrated So-net's customer rewards site earlier this week and stole customers' redeemable gift points worth about $1,225.
While the punitive damages are not that high, the mere fact any Sony property has been hacked is of course terrible news for the company. Sony is currently trying to refurbish its image after the worst security disaster in its history. Sony's popular PlayStation Network and its streaming music service, Qriocity, was hacked in early April. From that hack, millions of consumers had their data exposed and Sony had to shut down the network for nearly a month.
A Sony spokesperson confirmed the hack to The Wall St. Journal, but said it was likely unrelated to the other assaults. Although we can't completely rule out the possibility that there is a connection with the PSN issue, the likelihood is low, the spokesperson said.
The hacker made 10,000 attempts to So-net's point service. Likely, the perpetrator had an account holder's name and then used a password generator to finally get access. So-net learned of the breach on May 18 via consumer complaint, but it likely happened earlier this week.
Meanwhile, virus analyzing site F-Secure reported that a phishing site was running on one of Sony's servers and appeared on the official Sony Thailand site. Phishers attempt to gain sensitive data, such as credit card information, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity. According to F-Secure, shortly after it reported the phishing attack, Sony cleaned up the site.
Needless to say, these separate incidents cap off what has been a rough week, and month, for Sony.
Follow Gabriel Perna on Twitter at @GabrielSPerna
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.