Sony PlayStation hack: a glimpse into the world of online crime

When, last Wednesday, Sony shut down its PlayStation Network without warning or explanation, there was much grumbling from players across the world who were suddenly denied access to their accounts. As the days dragged on, the irritation grew – curdling into full-grown, flabbergasted outrage when, on Tuesday night, the Japanese technology giant admitted to its 77 million users that every detail of their accounts, from passwords to addresses to credit card details, could be in the hands of criminals.

As PR disasters go, it is one for the ages: Sony, a firm that defines itself by being on the cutting-edge, has been exposed as having humiliatingly inadequate security procedures. Indeed, the news follows a succession of embarrassing breaches: in recent months, both Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD system and its PlayStation 3 games console – billed as the most powerful and sophisticated on the planet – have been severely compromised.

There were, it seems, unique circumstances. The network, claimed Alan Paller, an American cyber-security expert, may have been constructed in haste, to be ready for the associated console’s launch. But the episode also illustrates the extent to which online data loss is an increasingly severe problem for corporations, governments and individuals alike. There is, of course, an outside chance that the Sony hack was a freelance operation, perhaps carried out by fringe members of

“Anonymous”, the anarchic online collective that was involved in the earlier security breaches. But the affair has all the hallmarks of the criminal gangs who are turning computer hacking into one of the most profitable illegal enterprises on the planet.

For Sony is not alone. Every time we make a purchase, visit a website, carry out an online banking transaction, we are exposing ourselves to risk. Within recent days, we have discovered that every iPhone is leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs, listing where they have been; that Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of America’s premier scientific institutions, has been penetrated by hackers for the second time in four years; and that, according to Sophos, a leading security vendor, Facebook’s Apps service is “riddled with rogue applications and viral scams”.