Sony Hacked....Again

[Lighthouse]

Unbelievable.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229351/sony_hacked_again_how_not_to_do_network_security.html

Yes. As unbelievable as it may seem, Sony was hacked again. It is not (entirely) Sony's fault that it is the target du jour for hackers everywhere. But, it is Sony's fault that its networks and servers seem to be trivial to hack and easy to pwn.

Now, I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as absolute security. Any network is vulnerable given an attacker with sufficient skills, resources, and time. So, it would be very easy for me to be sympathetic to Sony's plight--except Sony seems to ignore compliance requirements and basic security best practices, so it is basically begging to be attacked. Shame on you, Sony. Seriously.

Andrew Brandt, lead threat research analyst for Webroot, agrees. "Lulz Security says the information they stole was entirely unencrypted, and while we can't verify Lulz's statements, we can say that companies should take this as a warning to check their internal methods of storing their customers' confidential information and make sure they comply with industry standards such as PCI-DSS."

According to Randy Abrams, director of technical education for ESET, if Sony did, in fact, store passwords in plain-text as LulzSec claims, it is nothing short of blatant negligence.

Wasn't sure if I should put this in the Games area, since the PSN looks to be okay, but this is astonishing incompetence.