US lawmakers press Sony for info on data breach

U.S. lawmakers are pressing Sony Corp. for more information about the loss of personal data in a security breach that affected 77 million accounts on its PlayStation Network.

Republican Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack and Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield sent a letter Friday to the chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Kazuo Hirai.

[yewles1]

WTF??? THEY'RE the ones with all the info in the first place. It was law enforcement that did all the forensics and have all the details. Major BS call on this one.

[Elven6]

These are politicians asking Sony, not forensic specialists.

[rockleex]

FBI is working on this with Sony so I have NO IDEA why politicians think they need to stick their nose in this when they wouldn't even understand half of what the technical stuff even means.

[ct03]

The FBI acts in Sony's interest (identifying and finding the hackers).
The politicians act in the interest of Sony's customers (questioning Sony's handling of the crisis).

[RememberThe357]

Sony brought in an outside firm. It's wasn't law enforcement that did the forensics.

[Dark_king]

Sony also has been working with law enforcement agency the whole time.

[Blacksand1]

Why? lawmakers looking for info on breach wasting tax payers money on that, they need to be trying to find jobs for us and how to reduce this budget.

[socomnick]

Trying to prevent Millions of dollars in fraudulent charges is in the best interest to both the consumer and the economy.

Also it is not the Government job to find you jobs.

Government has very little to do with job growth, in fact they actually hurt the economy in the long run by injecting huge sums of money into the system. It just isnt a long term solution and it creates more problems and waste.

[gamingdroid]

That is because the government is inefficient and corrupt.

[Hellsvacancy]

The U.S hav always gotta stick there hooter (nose) in the pie aint they

No matter what the case, the Americans ALWAYS wanna be involved

[ct03]

Right, I say let Sony do whatever the heck they want. We should be glad they informed us of the stolen data AT ALL.

I mean, who are we to question how they stored the data and how slowly they informed customers about it? None of our business. Silly Americans. Always getting involved.

[coryok]

we need newer, younger, more tech savvy elected officials in office, some of these old fellas just dont understand wtf is going on

[Tony-Red-Grave]

exactly with the advances of tech. we need officals who are just as up to date as us to defend digital rights and protect consumers and companies when it comes to the cyberspace.

they just have no clue.

[Menech]

Sony have openly stated, someone has been able to infiltrate there network and steal the personal information of a possible 77 million members.

Regardless of if are credit card information was kept safe someone still needs to ask questions. Am not entirely conformable with "cyber terrorists" knowing everything about me.

From my date of birth to where I live and my full name. Fact is my personal information was stolen due to poor security.

People on here believe that credit card details are all that matter, that's totally wrong. Any idea how much that information the hacker/hackers stole is worth to advertisement companies?

Easily with in the region of million of dollars, and quite honestly Sony fucked up so people are going to ask questions and want answers.

[B1663r]

Menech,

Read around a little bit more than the worthless Sony FAQ. It wasn't a single hacker inside PSN. It has been a whole bunch of hackers for several months now. Basically a cyber riot. It started right after Geohotz cracked the PS3, and they were able to copy the SSL certificates out of the PS3 firmware, and people have been mucking about PSN ever since then.

People were doing things like pwning specific servers in the various clusters and installing rootkits and what not.

The compromise is far worse than Sony is letting on in their FAQ.

[Information Minister]

@ B166ER

Got any source to back up those claims? If you are saying that Sony's official statement on the issue is "worthless" and we should take the word of some unspecified random website as trustworthy instead, then you better have a damn good source.

And you really should stop promoting your opinion as "the truth". It's just childish.

[blackburn5]

Why are all these politicians fishing for answers? What does this have to do with them? Quit butting in and let Sony find the person or persons involved. Sony has explained a hundred times what happened. Weren't any of you listening?

[Elven6]

I think it has to do with regulations in the US marketplace but I'm not 100% sure. Basically to make sure when something at a companies screws up they were at least following procedures.

In this case I THINK all they need to know is whether Sony informed consumers within a reasonable amount of time after finding out.

But again, I'm not 100% sure so it would be nice to get a second opinion.

[Christopher]

Sony has no need to report to them issues in this regard. The only thing they can do is assign a third-party security team to privately evaluate and report on their security and if they can be held responsible for the breach due to negligence.

Our Congressional members ask for tons of information, they throw their weight around, but most of what they ask for you are protected against having to provide. Sony is protected from having to explain more than they have so far to them and need only do so to the appropriate bureau's in place for monitoring these sort of issues. Something they have already been doing.

[Bigpappy]

You under estimate the power of the congress. Do you know that the congress write the laws. They have the power to take any company, which does business in the US,an reduce them to a shell of what they are now. When M$ had to go against them, they did as they were told, when Toyota went, they did as told, and Sony will do the same here. You don't want to screw around with the congress when they are aiming to protect citizens from corporate abuse.

Sony can not tell the US congress what they are willing to disclose. They will simply do as told, like any other corporation who wants to do business in the largest market in the world.

[Christopher]

You need to read up on laws. Sony has every right to not disclose anything until they are required to by law. There is absolutely nothing in the law that says they need or should have to disclose any information to Congress.

Congress only has power within the law. And they don't have any power that we and the companies haven't given them, with restriction.

***They have the power to take any company, which does business in the US,an reduce them to a shell of what they are now.***

Just to note, this sounds very much like megalomania. Our government was not created to give power to the few, but with checks and balances to prevent such power from ever being abused.

[Bigpappy]

Now you are going to tell me what the founding fathers intended.

You are trying way to hard here to defend Sony. We are not in a court of law here. This is just plain common sense. Sony can not be entrusted with Millions of people's personal info, on the promis of security and privicy, then not let them know that that info might now have gotten into the hands of criminals. How could you try and defend the rights of a corporate entity over the common man or woman? It sounds like your position is: no one should investigate or question Sony on this. We should just accept what they said in the blog. There is no need to try and make sure that this corporation was not putting its interest ahead of its resposibilities to its customers.

The goverment is doing what they have to to protect its citizens. That is their roll (protect the people). The goverment is not there to protect corporate interest, it is there to protect people "for the people by the people" not "For the corporations by the corporations".

So Sony will provide this info, or they will they will find a reason to stop them from doing business in the US.

[Christopher]

***Now you are going to tell me what the founding fathers intended. ***

Founding fathers created our Constitution, not the majority of the laws derived therefrom. Especially not the laws we have not involving cybersecurity and the security of maintaining personal information.

***You are trying way to hard here to defend Sony.***

No, I'm stating fact. There is no law in place that would force Sony to hand over all the information being requested other than those that are already being acted upon.

***The goverment is doing what they have to to protect its citizens.***

Not if they're demanding this information. There are laws and procedures for this. Individual congress people calling out Sony on this isn't about the law, it's about them demanding more than the law requires.

***So Sony will provide this info, or they will they will find a reason to stop them from doing business in the US.***

Sony has already provided necessary information to those that require them by law. This includes giving complete access to the FBI and Homeland Security. They don't need to give it to a congress person who knows next to nothing about the methods in which data is secured.

Based on your logic, you'd be perfectly fine if a company gave over your personal information to a congress person because they asked. Would you decry the companies at that time if they refuse based on the desire to protect your personal information as well?

There are laws. Congress people are not the law. You don't just cave into their requests because they say it. That's an abuse of power.

[Blacksand1]

If they shut the system down to make better for us its a win, but don't have the system down until E3 that will be bad.

[upturned2]

ButterField

HAH!

[blackburn10]

@ Menech. Your exaggerating. The most people can do with that info is send you spam or messages. You can open the phonebook and find out where people live, their addresses and their phone numbers. The hackers, like with the phone book, still don't know who you are. You act as if every time you go on to sites and across the internet that people aren't watching and gaining your info.Spyware does it all the time. You act as if Sony had your data just sitting on a counter and just handed it to the hacker when they came in.It was unfortunate that this happened but your blowing your blood vessels for nothing. They can't do anymore with your info then Facebook does everyday.

[fedexas]

...Congress does nothing about the failing economy in the United States and yet they have the nerve to question Sony on this issue when the situation has been explained SEVERAL TIMES already.

[evrfighter]

The nerve of congress!!!!!

screw them for worrying about how mega corporations secure the data of TENS of millions of its consumers!!!!

If sony wants to protect their customer information in a folder protected by a 4 letter password running on windows 95. They can do it if they want!!!!

[fedexas]

Give it a rest cowboy. I never stated that Sony can do whatever they want. I just find it amazing that Congress is concerned with something like this while the economy is in shambles.

By the way, get with the times. Credit card information wasn't compromised to begin with. Congress should be passing a bill to deal with hackers instead.

You're always bashing Sony anyway so I'm not even surprised that you're salty because I share a different point of view.

Go figure. :)

[Cherchez La Ghost]

Sony should have alerted consumers about this when it first happend. If they would have did that, the gov't would not be putting the press on them. Even if no one purchased content on PSN, a hacker just need your email address to access everything else information wise linked to your email. That's the fcuked up part about this. But this can happen to any company.

[Mr_Luke]

I miss the old consoles, great games and no online. Had lot of fun with my PS2/Xbox without Live. I was lagfree and when i wanted to play with a friend i used my PC or i went out in the REAL world to drink something or so.
Now for 2 weeks of offline ppl are killing themselves. Incredible. Talking about Sony since they're in the center of the attention now, but i would think the same if it was Microsoft or Nintendo or Whatever company.
I just think that society is on a regression (technology can go forward, but society goes back). That's all.
I know i know: not a reply, disagrees, spam, troll, whatever, have fun with the buttons under my message =P