Sony's public mea culpa and subsequent "welcome back" rewards plan: Too little, too late?
That's the question we have to ask ourselves in the wake of last night's big press briefing by Sony Corp. executive deputy president Kazuo Hirai. Following a deep bow and an equally deep apology, Hirai announced plans for new PlayStation Network security measures—including restricting password changes to a verified email address or the same console to which the account is tied—as well as new infrastructure on Sony's side: firewalls, a switch to a new data center, and the creation of a Chief Security Officer position within Sony's executive hierarchy.
But are these gestures—including the possibility of Sony covering credit card replacement costs for its users and the promise of free "welcome back" content—enough to keep the 10 million or so active users of the PlayStation Network (who have attached credit cards to the service) from jumping ship?
Or what about the higher-than-that-but-not-really 77 million PlayStation Network users—a figure Hirai cautions against using, because some users have duplicate accounts—who have had their personal data exposed in some fashion?
That's the exact question asked earlier this week in a survey by CouponCodes4U. In the nationwide poll, which amassed responses from 2,132 different people ages 18 or older, the company found that 41 percent admitted to owning a PlayStation 3. And of these PlayStation 3 purchasers, 89 percent of them were concerned that their personal data might have been exposed and stolen during the breach of Sony's PlayStation Network.
Worse—for Sony—is the 21 percent of these PlayStation 3 owners, or approximately 183 people, said they were considering ditching their PlayStation 3 consoles entirely and jumping ship to Microsoft's Xbox 360.
"As a video gamer myself, this data theft is especially worrying and I'm not altogether surprised that Sony are likely to see an exodus to console competitors," said Mark Pearson, chairman of CouponCodes4U.
"Sony has a responsibility to its millions of customers to protect personal details and this data theft proves that they weren't capable of doing so. It's clear that gamers across the country have decided that this failing is enough to switch their allegiances to the console's closest rival," Pearson added.
Users, it seems, don't like the possibility of their credit card or personal information being out in the wild—and if you think Sony's impervious, just consider the state of affairs of the online Web service Blippy. In April of last year, it was revealed that one could use a targeted Google search to uncover users' credit card numbers on the social shopping site. Traffic, as measured by Compete.com, went from around 185,0000 monthly users to 28,000 users within two months of the incident.
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