Case Studies: Sony

Sony: A security breach that shut down Sony’s Playstation Network in spring 2011 turned into a major privacy fiasco when the company revealed a week later that user data had been compromised. As a result of Sony’s delay in notifying users that their data may have been revealed, its behavior was called into question by Congress, with Rep. Bono Mack (R-CA) describing it as a “half-hearted, half-baked response [that] is not going to fly in the future.” In the aftermath, Sony not only has to deal with at least one lawsuit accusing it of not taking “reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data of its users,” it also “will have a long road ahead to win back the trust of gamers.”

Sony: Shipping CDs with an aggressive digital rights management (DRM) program that installed itself on users' computers without their permission was a big mistake for Sony. The company was targeted by multiple class-action lawsuits and blasted in the media. Sony was forced to recall the CDs and pay millions of dollars in compensation to its users.