Sony's Insurers to Help Foot Bill for Data Breach, Could Exceed $2 Billion

Sony is looking to its insurers to help cover the cost of cleaning up a data breach that exposed the names of more than 100 million customers, an amount that one expert estimates could exceed $2 billion.

[rabidpancakeburglar]

OHHH NOOO!!! I'll believe it when the accounts come out

[Dante112]

Damn, guess Sony will one up Microsoft for the 1 billion it had to pay for the RROD situation (3 year warranty) if true.

[Shadow Flare]

Except this is sonys insurers that would be paying, not Sony. Microsoft had to pay their $1 billion. Knowingly selling a product with an atrocious failure rate vs being attacked by hackers. Sony was the victim, Microsoft was the culprit

[Dante112]

Oh, my bad. Glad to hear that actually.

[moparful99]

Again these are ESTIMATIONS based on if anything of value was taken... SO far there has been not a single drop of evidence that anyones credid cards have been hit with fraudulent charges as a result of this breach... Once again these news agencies are using sensationalism to appeal to peoples basic instincts so they click that link... This is nowhere near as bad as all of these reporters would have you believe because "safe" doesn't generate buzz or hits to websites.... Ignore/move along/ nothing to see here

[ASSASSYN 36o]

@Shadow you can't read. It clearly says Help Foot the bill in the title. No company is immune to paying something along with the insurer. They very well may have a deductible also. "They are not going to be completely unscathed," said Etti Baranoff, professor of insurance at Virginia Commonwealth University. "No matter what, their insurance rates are going to go up."

Damn did you even bother to read the article?'And if you never had insurance (which I suspect is the case) you missed a great opportunity to learn something.

[Shadow Flare]

The internets such a friendly place. Thanks assasin360 I did read the article. I guess I must have whizzed past a bunch of it by accident when I was scrolling down on my phone. I guess Sony will be paying some of the costs and they're trying to see if their insurance can help cover the costs. Hopefully the insurance will help cover most of the damages

[thats_just_prime]

$ony fucks up and then try to stick someone with the bill for their mistakes

[rockleex]

thats_just_prime probably has no idea how insurance works.

Heck, banks even have insurance in case they ever get robbed.

[M-Easy]

Wow so now there's 100 million users now? $2 Billion to fix lmao. Its funny how before this happened the haters said nobody used the PS3 now there are 100 million users omg I hate gaming "journalism."

I love how there's 100 million users now but when this dies down next week it will be back to the old trolling of no one is on psn, that's why I play my games on other systems, more community smh...

[-Alpha]

I don't see what fanboys say about PSN online has to do with this, unless you are implying that this site is a fanboy website that has said "PSN has no online" In which case, you are wrong because it's a general news website that hasn't bothered to make fanboy opinion pieces.

The 100 million sounds like an oversight-- a lot of websites are misinformed on it but likely it's going unnoticed because it's not the main part of what is being reported, in this case that insurers are helping to pay the bill.

I don't think the number of users means much anymore as it did when originally reported (before Sony gave the official number themselves), but it's definitely not accurate, nor is it central to what is being reported here, so you will have to forgive the mistake

[M-Easy]

Yeah but if they can't get a simple fact right (off by 23 million by the highest estimates) then why in the world would you believe anything else they have to say. In my business once you're established to be a liar or incompetent then everything you say is null. Like this opinion piece masqueraded as an "article."

[-Alpha]

Edit: Nevermind, Max below got it. It includes SOE users. Forgot about that.

Thanks, Max. Like Max says, this includes all Sony customers, not just PSN users

[Max_Dissatisfaction]

77 million PSN user accounts, 24 million SOE accounts. Total 101 million user accounts. Keep up

[M-Easy]

SOE numbers included in the inflated PSN numbers. Slow down. Of those 24m SOE only 900 had active CCs, the active number of PSN has not been disclosed as far as I know.

[-Alpha]

If those numbers were inflated, they were inflated by Sony themselves

In fact, by Kaz himself:

http://www.flickr.com/photo... (Read #5)

Notice this includes Qriocity users as well. So either Sony inflates the numbers themselves, in which case you cannot blame the news, or the number includes Qriocity, SOE, and PSN users, in which case the article is still right.

Again, it's not the central point here, nor does it make a large difference, and calling it a fanboy site/bringing up fanboy arguments serves no purpose here.

[baodeus]

so Ps3 sold about 50million, but here u said they have 100million PSN users. So i'm guessing that everyone have 2 accounts on average?

[mrv321]

So someone else preforms an illegal action and the victim are footing the bill.

Justice.

[gamingdroid]

That is how society rewards individuals.

You are poor, don't work? Here is unemployment!

Poor you! Got screwed during the mortgage crisis because you couldn't flip your house? Maybe you overextended your loan and got that nice TV? Here is a handout!

You work? You paid your mortgage on-time? Here is increased taxes b!tches!!!

It's wealth redistribution from the upper middle class, because the barrier to being upper middle class is now lower middle class! Enjoy!!!

Do you see a parallel? People that do stupid sh!t and expect others to clean up for them.

[Seraphemz]

Someones got some pent up issues...lol

[sleepy3]

I don't think its fair to lump all poor unemployed people into a category of people etting what they should not. Sure, some of them maybe are lazy about finding a job but there are a LOT, as in MILLIONS of people pounding the pavement evryday trying to get a job who were not as lucky as you to have money as a kid growing up to afford a console or a PC, even to put food on the table every night.

Don't sit all high and mighty in your air conditioned comfort with your bigget worry being when PSN is coming back and call poor people lazy.

Poor uneducated people did get screwed over by banks offering them loans they could not afford and did not understand. They were millions of poor people taken advantage of by greedy banks offering 'introductory rates.'

Maybe you should take this time that PSN is down to go do some charity work with the less fortunate and listen to them and see what these people go through and see how much they DO want to work. Some of them even work 2 jobs and STILL cant feed their kids cause they got screwed by banks tricking them into buying a house they could not afford when the rates went up. Go do some charity work and listen for a change before you judge.

[gamingdroid]

Actually, I grew up pretty poor as my parents were refugees. We were on welfare for a long time and I quickly learned with "the right" hard work you get rewarded.

The issue I'm having is people "feel" like they got screwed over by banks. That's BS! The terms are on the table, if you don't understand it don't sign it!

If people work, then they aren't unemployed? Which is the ones I'm talking about. Most of the time the job isn't good enough for them. Hunger is a good motivator....

Also, I was involved in clothing recycling that would pay $12/hour tax free cash mind you to the homeless to help move some stuff. You know what they did? Refused!

They are homeless because they didn't want to work. Now I did see a lot of homeless people that had mental issues, and that is an entirely different issue that I can respect.

But since you are such a nice person, why don't you give up gaming sell all your stuff and give it to the poor and needy. I'm sure they will extend a hand and ask for more!

I would rather give to third world countries before I feed these parasites.

[sleepy3]

You grew up poor, you made it, and now you say "screw the poor"

Good Job. You deserve a cookie. What a great person you are.

Here, have a tax break.

You should maybe move to Monaco or somewhere else that there aren't any poor people to annoy you. That way you can keep all of your money to yourself and not have any pesky less fortunate to help.

[gamingdroid]

No!

This is the reason I love the US, it is the land of opportunities. There is almost no other country in the world that rewards opportunity as much as the US.

I vote for opportunity not free handouts after YOU SCREW UP! If you screw up, take responsibility and don't blame others. The hallmark of maturity.

However, I'm pretty sure you would change your tune once you start seeing other people eating out of your lunch for free.

That said, your entire argument has now turned into "you are such a great person....".

Oh, btw I wouldn't exactly say I made it. I make a modest living, but don't blame people richer than me for how poor I am.

[BabyTownFrolics]

land of opportunity yes, equal opportunity no

[gamingdroid]

True to some degree, but then again there is never equality ever.

I'm more likely to succeed in the US with hard work (with few exceptions of emerging and high growth nations) than any other country.

[sleepy3]

You ARE aware that this is how the world works right?

Your taxpayers dollars had to pay to bail out companies that did shady accounting and lost all your savings.

BP had to pay for the sloppy work done by a contractor firm.

At the end of the day, someone has to be responsible for protection.

If anything, be happy that Sony so far has been the bigger man and not play all high and mighty saying, "Don't blame us, blame anon, we are blameless here."
No, they came out, admitted they didn't take their security seriously enough by saying even though the world knew of the vulnerability, they were not convinced of it. They are doing what they can to right any damages, including taking a hit financially. They should be commended for that.

In the same way BP should be commended for their handling of the spill aftermath (the fund set up and so on), and MS should be commended for taking a billion dollar write off to replace people's 360's free of charge.

I like to see companies with dignity, and in this case, Sony is one in my eyes. Sure, they should have warned people about the CC stuff earlier, but at least they actually did and didn't try to cover it up like a certain car company that covered up the fact that their brakes are trying to kill you.

[gamingdroid]

"No, they came out, admitted they didn't take their security seriously enough by saying even though the world knew of the vulnerability, they were not convinced of it."

What is there to be convinced about? You should really ask yourself why Sony is running un-patched software and leaving systems without firewalls. Refusing to be "convinced" of vulnerabilities despite the threats.

Now did Sony get their due just? Yes, I think they are being harshly criticized, but they are not "the bigger man" here. They are partly self-victimized.

About BP, yes they should have been lynched, but instead Obama didn't do jack squat! He was too busy giving tax payers money.

I believe that they didn't find jack squat wrong with Toyota brakes. Out of the millions sold, they only had like several thousand cases that was skewed towards the elderly. That was most likely the government wanting the competition to die down a little for their new found company GM!

source: http://finance.yahoo.com/ne...

[Raven_Nomad]

Jesus, Sony is like the Buffalo Bills of the 1990's, just cant win.

[cochise313]

Sony will come back stronger than ever after the network is back up. I bet they completely overhauled it.

[moparful99]

I have a feeling that once the psn servers come back online there will be so much buzz about it that they will see increased activity and maybe even greater sales then pre breach.... All of this publicity may prove to be a good thing in the end, sucks it comes off the heels of a crappy situation like the psn breach.... But oh well can't wait to get back online!!

[refocusedman]

This sucks!! I can guarantee that psn wont be free in the future. Whoever did this really f'ed things up for everyone. Lots of people say that Sony is gonna pay but, I think that we gamers are gonna end up losing out.

[-Alpha]

There is no way Sony is charging for PSN with XBL having brand and user popularity, as well as an untarnished reputation.

PSN's hacking issue has made some customers afraid to trust the service. Charging for it will scare off more users.

Any chance Sony had of charging users like LIVE does has been slim ever since XBL became popular, and now the possibility is completely out of the picture, at least for this gen.

Sony will have to continue remaining free. They have never had a choice in this if they wanted to compete with LIVE

If they want to charge they have to do it through option services like Plus or have to overhaul their content/marketing for PSN and charge reasonably and less than LIVE.

[Neko_Mega]

Can anyone count or read? 100m?

[B1663r]

Yeah, a lot of those are dead accounts, and that is fine. But PCI-DSS regulations require that they delete unused accounts and data. Although I don't think the actual time before an account is called abandoned is stipulated.

[Neko_Mega]

Yeah but Sony said 77m and how do people get 100m?

That what seems weird to me.

[moparful99]

^^ 77 million psn accounts
+23 million soe accounts
=100 million total accounts...

But of course that automatically equals 2 billion in damages to sensationalist reporters online...

[yewles1]

Idiotic of you, making people think it's 100 Million PSN accounts. But that's what's expected of such manipulators...

[jack who]

someones insurance rate gona go tho the roof

[Captain Tuttle]

Yeah, that's the real damage here. Sony will get help with the bill but they'll pay for it in the long run.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Negligence may very well make sony responsible for the whole bill. Just like if you left your car on the street with the door open and keys in the ignition. Your fault, your problem, you pay. Read your policies if you don't believe that. Sony left the keys in the ignition and the door open to their Veyron Bugatti. Insurance doesn't cover stupid. I hope they straighten this out. Gaming needs the competition to generate better consoles and better games.

[baodeus]

Can't blame much on sony, if hacker want to hack, they can. Although Sony should have been more attentive about the situation and alert users asap (if their security get hack, the first thing should be important documents especially consumers ones).