Sony Pictures website hacked

Gregory Warner Jun 3, 2011
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Sony Pictures website hacked

Gregory Warner Jun 3, 2011
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BOB MOON: Sony has apparently fallen victim, yet again, to an online security breach. This time its movie site — Sony Pictures.

More from Marketplace’s Gregory Warner.


GREGORY WARNER: Yesterday’s attack on Sony Pictures wasn’t nearly as extensive a breach as the hack on the Playstation network. This time no credit card numbers were taken. But emails, home addresses, and dates of birth were exposed. It’ll cost Sony millions of dollars to clean up, redesign and reinsure their site.

CHRIS GREEN: The cost associated with a data breach is huge for any company but it’s all the more amplified if you are a household name like Sony is.

Chris Green analyzes technology for the firm Davies Murphy in London. He says this is the latest in a series of large public hacks on companies that the hackers contend are abusing public trust or simply ripping people off. The hackers called Sony’s security “disgraceful.” They revealed that Sony had left over a million user passwords in plain text.

GREEN: To keep that amount of sensitive data, sat there in the clear in an unencrypted file is quite frankly stupid. And there’s no excuse for it.

Green says Sony is starting to be seen as not serious about security. That’s a bad reputation these days.

I’m Gregory Warner for Marketplace.

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