Sony Falls Victim to Hackers … Again

Sony, after fighting a prolonged battle with hackers and leaving users of the PlayStation Network without access for 44 days, finally flipped the “on” switch on all of its online services yesterday. Unfortunately for Sony (and its customers), it looks like their security war is hardly over. The Sony Pictures website was hacked by a simple SQL injection, with a million usernames and passwords stolen. Worse, the information was apparently stored plaintext — that is, completely unencrypted. The hackers who perpetrated the attack, who call themselves “LulzSec,” say that the lack of security on Sony customers’ personal information was shameful and that they were asking for an attack. At this point, it’s difficult to feel bad for Sony anymore, though I definitely do feel bad for the tens of thousands of people who had their information posted online by the hackers.

Michael Sacco is a freelance editor and writer, currently working as senior editor at WoW Insider, part of the Joystiq network.