Howard Stringer, the president of Sony USA, has posted an apology letter on Sony's website, and while the letter doesn't offer any more info on the attacks or Sony's response, it is an interesting read. We already know that Sony is offering PSN gamers compensation for their stolen data, as well as hugely beefing up security for free, but Stringer's letter is the emotional, personal response to the issue. Stringer apologizes to gamers, writing:
"As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack."
Stringer goes on to explain the amount of time that Sony took to notify consumers as to the security breach:
"I know some believe we should have notified our customers earlier than we did. It’s a fair question. As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had — or had not — been taken."
I was most struck by this quote from Stringer:
"In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But now we are facing a very man-made event – a criminal attack on us — and on you — and we are working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to apprehend those responsible."
While the entire letter is carefully crafted, neutral corporate-speak, the above paragraph almost seems to show anger at the situation and the people responsible, as well as tying Sony and gamers together as co-victims in the security breach. Tacitly comparing the security breach to the recent natural disasters in Japan is a bit tasteless, but it shows the seriousness with which Sony is taking the situation, and exactly how disastrous they regard it as.
Of course, most PSN gamers are most interested in one question: When will the PSN be back up? According to Stringer, it will be in the "coming days."
"In the coming days, we will restore service to the networks and welcome you back to the fun. I wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are committed to serving you to the very best of our ability, protecting your information better than ever, and getting you back to what you signed up for – all the games and great entertainment experiences that you expect from Sony."
So, what do you think of Stringer's letter? Let us know in our comment section.
Source: Sony
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cybernet00
I don't feel sorry for Sony. The fact of the matter is that they made and are still making tons of money but decided not to update their systems. In my opinion this was just an accident waiting to happen and reminds me a lot of BP.
jp36ers
"coming soon" all most of us want is a date that is realistic so we knw wen it shall be up. movie trailers say coming soon and the movie wont be out 4 another month can we really wait another month?
billybob8476
I'm personally having a conflict with the fact that we can't log in and erase our credit card info.
monkeygibber
If I see one post by an idiot that blames Sony for this because "they removed otherOS" I'm going to go nuts. It's their product, if they want to remove what to the majority of people was a non-utilized waste of an option anyway then they can do that. Shut-up, grow up and get your head out of your ass...this whole mess is the hackers fault not Sony.
RoyaltyGamer
I pissed at the hackers ! They ruined it for everyone with a PSN account !
thejoker959
just a "few more days..." god i hope that doesnt mean a week or more
yathoom
OK ... who puts his money on today! (Friday May 6th) that PSN will comeback ?
dabobo602
What thhe heck happened the services will be restored within a week from last Friday from last week. Damn it. Sony, I went and bought a xbox 360 just to get my fix. PLEASE GET IT BACK UP TODAY. I hate the whiney litttle kids on XBOX live.
redran2
who caes they got what was comign to them so deal best the psn stays off line for goood
j_thadeus_toad
hey SONY while your in there messing around with things could you bring back the backwards compatibility for PS2 games. Its one of my biggest disappointments with the system.
Kyamelee
As a PSN gamer, I appreciate the apology letter and hope that this doesn't happen again. They're facing the issue in a smart way and giving us information on how they're doing it. Like I said I appreciate it and hope to be gaming online soon.
rightiknow
wow you guys can't defend this. I've sold all of my PS3 games and hardware for other platforms and won't be happy until Sony has a 3rd party run a PCI/SOX Audit on their data centers to determine they are compliant and then post the info publically for the consumers to see.
I work in IT and running servers with unpatched Apache and without firewalls is unacceptable. They were just asking for this type of thing to happen.
multani14
Sony is no victim You reap what you sow,since they took away what they offered and covered there ears to not listen to those who use the service. That started the hate and began a movement. If the psn plus would bring those features then hell many would come back and pay. i do believe that adding the earthquake statement was tasteless because they didn't need to remind it we know what happened, we just want our psn to play, for a company this size to pushed down a applaud it. Give back what they took even if it means making us have to pay a monthly fee and give us better security, with that everyone would be glad to pay for a service and feel safe again. Free service doesn't mean Sony can say sorry for not having better servers. It like saying my money is in the best bank in the world and they keep my saving in desk drawer and if its stolen then its my problem cause its free. That sucks just start charging and get back in the game of giving not taking. If they set up the monthly fee with the reason of protection and returning what we all had then they won't go wrong.
Cole_95354
Sony's apology is too little too late in my opinion. the duty to any company that holds personal information including but not limited to credit cards is to inform their fanbase FIRST AND FOREMOST regardless of knowing the extent of the damage because hey, have you had your identity stolen? i have, it takes two hours and you're out of twenty grand.
I understand that there are many people who are worried more about "What If"s concerning Xbox and even Nintendo. However, these companies wont think twice about informing their fan base. Regardless of Xbox Fanboys Sony Fanboys and Nintendo Fanboys, people are more worried about their own financial wellbeing.
I own all three systems with personal information in all three systems, I find the situation of me finding out that my personal information may have been stolen tasteless, screw the part of comparing hackers and tsunamis. ALL companies REGARDLESS of what they have stored in their databases with cheap password generators that are written by hackers themselves should be REQUIRED to inform the public upon the first incident of any hack that involves their customers information.
Oh yeah and as a CC to Sony, Anonymous used Pastebin.com to coordinate their attacks, Sony's head honcho's information was in the trending pastes for over 72 hours that included their addresses on file, phone numbers, emails, wifes, etc. Anonymous was also using IRC to communicate, first given out on pastebin.
Hackers may be smart, but most of their followers are stupid. it took me less than two minutes to find their findings and conversations related to their activities.
May those of you who did have information stolen and used have the best of luck hiding your identity in the future and may walmart's quick charge anonymous cards be on the top of your christmas lists.
AG_CHAINZ
I think Sony themselves don't know when the network will be back up. At first they said a week, then it was before the end of May, and now it's the coming days. ( we will see)
ZeroKyon
Relax, fellow gamers. Stephan just meant that comparing a hacking job to a natural disaster isn't the best way to get your point across since they are entirely different things. On the other hand, he saved himself, I think, by saying that the comparison shows how seriously Sony is dealing with the hack job. So guys and girls, don't get mad at Stephan. I don't think he meant the article to be or sound bias.
As for Sony, cut them some slack. I mean yeah, they didn't inform us right away but they also didn't want to feed us any speculation without all the facts. And there secrecy about all the specific is most likely for security reasons, as well as liability issues. So chill out and have some faith in Sony, for crying out loud. And if not faith, then at least have the decency to not smear them for something that was out of the their control. Besides, even if Sony had the means to stop such an intrusion, don't forget that hackers can still find ways around such security. So don't blame Sony, blame the hackers.
That is all.
cshawnc
I think Howard Stringers inclusion of the statement regarding the earthquake and tsunami was intended to make us take a moment to consider that we may not be able to play online at the moment, and someone may have some personal information about us, but we still have a place to live, have running water and power, television to watch, radio to listen to, PS3's to play offline, our jobs and our own lives in addition to those of our friends, family and neighbors- unlike many people in Japan.
There is a saying, "Fake it until you make it", and Japan seems to be great at that. Just because they are putting on a brave face and moving forward doesn't mean we should forget what they have gone through recently.
Additionally, this isn't something that just occurred in the United States- these vicious, unlawful attacks on Sony affected their services and customers worldwide. Let's stop being our usual self-involved American selves and take a moment to consider our neighbors around the globe.
rightiknow
I've sold all of my PS3 games and hardware for other platforms and won't be happy until Sony has a 3rd party run a PCI/SOX Audit on their data centers to determine they are compliant and then post the info publically for the consumers to see.
I work in IT and running servers with unpatched Apache and without firewalls is unacceptable. They were just asking for this type of thing to happen.
JEDI_CAPRICORN
I as well as all of my Playstation Friends SUPPORT SONY 100% through this entire mess and am patiently awaiting the return of the PSN.. Sony is the best entertainment company in the world in my opinion and I feel 100% secure with my information in their hands once the network is back up..
JEDI
mood4amelody
I'm amused by the term "cyber attack". I think security breach or just plain ole "Hacked" is more apt and honest. A lot less pretentious.
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