Abstract
The purpose of this paper to answer the questions purposed in writing assignment 6. The first question involves the hacking of the Sony PSN and the effects this has on organizations. The second question involves whether it is even reasonable to assume that organizations can have protection measures in place to stop the world’s best hackers. The third question involves whether or not hackers should be prosecuted and sent to jail. The fourth question involves the reluctance of organizations to operate in a transparent fashion. Then finally we will discuss my personal identity theft story. These questions are based on the Case Study: "SONY REELS FROM MULTIPLE HACKER ATTACKS" (Haag & Cummings, 2013).
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the hacking of the Sony PSN and what effects hacking has on organizations. Part one will include research on the Sony PSN debacle and the cost estimates for the incident. Part two will cover whether it is even reasonable to assume that organizations can have protection measures in place to stop the world’s best hackers. Part three will include whether or not hackers should be prosecuted and sent to jail or if they can be turned to work legitimately. Part four will discuss the reluctance of organizations to operate in a transparent fashion. The final topic of this paper will focus on my personal identity theft story.
The PlayStation Network was originally hacked on April 18th but the news was not released for several days as Sony assessed the nature of what information was stolen. It turned out that millions of user accounts including names, birth dates and encrypted passwords were stolen by the hackers. In addition a database of credit card numbers were stolen but Sony has reported that those were protected by industry standard encryption. Notably, these breaches occurred after Sony had laid off many of its security personnel in the months preceding the attacks. This all matters because it has happened before, and has had Sony struggling to recover in the past. (Sony PlayStation Network Hacked Again, n.d.). After an attack in April the PlayStation network was offline for 44 days, and spent about $170 million to restart, and try to restore its relationship with its customers. Sony also announced that it would be providing identity theft insurance for all users as well as a ‘welcome back’ package for PSN users that included several free games and a month of free PlayStation Plus service (The Hidden Cost Of The PSN Downtime Debacle, n.d.). Even worse is what about all of those people that sold their PS3 as a result of the downtime debacle? Those customers are lost to Sony, maybe forever. This loss is by far the biggest loss of them all.
In a world where 300 million computers are connected by the Internet, the opportunity to tap new revenue streams for a slice of the global security pie has never been greater - but neither has the risk. Looking back on the news of the last year, it’s hard not to feel uneasy about the enormous amounts of data lifted, altered and stolen by hackers. Every few weeks, it feels like another major company is compromised, whether it’s a cache of millions of Apple UDIDs, Dropbox email addresses, or LinkedIn passwords , it’s a clear sign that no one is safe when hackers are out to do some damage. One of the most common and overlooked threats to a company's assets and trade secrets is the networked peripheral. Each time a document is copied, printed, scanned or faxed, an image is left behind on the system's hard drive. This information is as much at risk of getting hacked as information stored on PCs (Networked Peripherals, n.d.). In today's world, this is simply not good enough; companies should have a contingency plan prepared in case the business becomes the victim of a cyber-attack. Companies who fall victim to these breaches always appear the same way: hobbled, slowed down,