Case Name :      Sony PlayStation: Security Breach

Authors :           Jana Seijts, Paul Bigus

Source :             Ivey Publishing

Case ID :            W12309

Discipline :        General Management

Case Length :    12 pages

Solution Sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

In April 2011, Sony’s PlayStation and Qriocity services were attacked by an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into the company network, compromising user account information. For five days, the corporation turned off both its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services while it conducted a full and complete investigation with the help of an external security firm. Although brief statements about the issue were posted on the PlayStation blog, Sony did not publicly disclose the full extent of the security breach or the expected date when network services might return to normal, leaving many people speculating if personal or financial information had been illegally obtained. The timing was complicated by the imminent announcement of the launch of Sony’s first tablet computer. With its public statement, Sony intended to communicate key points of information about, explanations of and solutions to the network interruption. With over 70 million PlayStation Network and Qriocity services user accounts worldwide, customers, industry analysts, investors, consumer protection groups and government officials were all waiting for answers.