Sony chairman Howard Stringer said the hacker attack that crippled the company’s online entertainment services and exposed more than 100 million customer accounts was a hiccup in its Internet strategy.
“Nobody’s system is 100 percent secure,” Stringer, 69, said in a phone interview almost a month after the shutdown of the Qriocity and PlayStation Network services. “This is a hiccup in the road to a network future.”
The attack has undermined Stringer’s plan to lure customers by linking Sony’s televisions, mobile devices and computers to its entertainment content through the Internet. Stringer, who apologized for the breach this month, said he doesn’t have estimates for how the hacking attack will affect earnings, scheduled to be announced May 26.
“Investors are waiting to see more information on the financial impact,” said Yuji Fujimori, a Tokyo-based analyst at Barclays PLC. Sony “hasn’t been able to disclose much about the investigation.”
Sony hired three security firms to investigate the attack and is working with law enforcement officials after criticism that it was too slow to inform consumers about the breach.
The effort to restore confidence suffered another blow Tuesday when Sony temporarily shut down the password-reset pages on the website of PlayStation Network, which offers games and movies, and Qriocity, a service for programs and music.
Users who forgot their old passwords would have been required to provide their e-mail address and date of birth. That information may have been stolen during the April breach, Sony has said.
“Consumers who haven’t reset their passwords for PSN are still encouraged to do so directly on their PS3,” spokesman Dan Race said in an e-mailed statement. The flaw has been fixed, and once the sites are back online, users will be able to resume resetting their passwords there, he said.
