Sony's Kazuo Hirai Sends Open Letter to U.S. Congress

According to the latest information, Sony opens the details of the April hacker attack to the public eye, through a 8-page response to the US Congress. The document sent by Kazuo Hirai, Representative Corporate Executive Officer and Executive Deputy President of Sony, to the U.S. House of representatives explains in concrete steps the events and the actions taken immediately after the hack. The letter includes the principles Sony guided the matter after, the current situation and the answers to a set of questions. Here are the main ideas in the text:

• Sony has been the victim of a very planned, very professional, highly sophisticated hacker attack on April 17 and 19. 
• Sony discovered that the hackers left a file in their system named Sony "Anonymous", which contained the text "We are Legion."
• By April 25, cyber security experts from Sony, Data Forte and Guidance Software, joined by the FBI, were able to confirm the stealing of the personal data believed to have been taken. They did not rule out the possibility that credit card information may have been stolen as well. On April 26, Sony notified customers of the facts.
• Until the present time, the major credit card companies have not reported any fraudulent transactions that they believe are the direct result of this cyber attack.
• Sony outlined that the protection of customers’ personal data was the highest priority and ensuring that the Internet can be made secure for commerce is also essential. They made an appeal to all countries and business to join forces against cyber crime and cyber terrorism.
• Sony is now taking a number of steps to prevent future hacker attacks, including more powerful data protection and encryption; an enhanced ability to detect unauthorized software access, and unusual activity patterns; more firewalls; replacing the person in charge with Information Security.

Last month, a breach in the Sony’s Playstation Network has started the hacker hunt down. Over 100 million online users’ personal data has been exposed. Sony is facing lawsuits with the United States and Canada law firms. Canadian law firm McPhadden Samac Tuovi went forward with he lawsuit demanding 1 billion Canadian dollars on behalf of their client, Natasha Maksimovic, which is one of Sony’s online network customers. Maksimovic, 21, is scandalized by Sony’s problem handling:
“It appears to me that Sony focuses more on protecting its games than its PlayStation users.” she said.
Addressing the criticism that the company waited too long to inform customers (over a week), Hirai said Sony had to wait until it had a solid understanding and confirmation in regard to the incident’s proportions before launching in official statements.

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