After a partial restart of Sony's PSN and Qriocity networks, which were breached by hackers last month, CEO Howard Stringer said the company can't guarantee the network's security or promise hackers won't bring it down again. And, he said, no network could.
"It's the beginning, unfortunately, or the shape of things to come," said Stringer. "It's not a brave new world; it's a bad new world," he said.
Sony admits that personal information of as many as 100 million users was possibly compromised by the attack, which caused the company to shut down the network April 20; it's been down for nearly a month as Sony worked to reinforce security walls with new technologies and software monitoring and vulnerability testing.
Stringer said he wasn't sure is anyone was "100 percent secure" anymore, saying that hackers could turn their attention to any target.
Sony has yet to disclose the financial impact the month-long shutdown cost it, but analysts say it may approach $1 billion. It reports quarterly earnings May 26.
Stringer defended Sony's security record, noting PSN and Sony Online Entertainment hadn't suffered a serious breach.
"We had no reason to believe that our security was not good and still no reason to believe it because we have plenty of people looking at it," said Stringer. "We've learned that we just have to keep improving our security."
For more:
- see this Wall Street Journal article
Related articles:
Sony: Hackers of PSN, Qriocity gained access to data of 77M users
Qriocity VOD service debuts in Canada
Rumor: Sony planning new movie and music rival to iTunes
Apple, Amazon and Sony join race for VOD prize
Sony, PS3, get HD deals with six studios