Analysis and Criticism of the Sony PlayStation Network Shutdown

Since the early 1970 's, video games have increased in popularity to become a multi-billion dollar business today (Goldman, 2010). On May 16, 2005, the Japanese electronics maker Sony launched the PlayStation 3. This was the third home video game console produced by the company, and looked to capitalize on the immense popularity of the previous version. With the advent of high speed internet, online video gaming has become an increasingly important part of the industry. As such, Sony has included access for all users to the PlayStation Network platform on their consoles. This network allows users to play games with each other, purchase games, and more, all via the Internet. Unfortunately, in late April of 2011, the PlayStation Network suffered an attack on its services from hackers outside the company. The series of events that followed this attack, outlined the security flaws of Sony 's network, their questionable management of the situation, and the reaction of its customers.

The first day of the attack on Sony 's networks occurred on April 16, 2011. However, this first attack was not on the PlayStation Network, but on the company 's personal computer (PC) gaming service. Hackers broke into this network and were able to retrieve the personal details of approximately 25 million users. The next day, a similar attack occurred on the PlayStation Network itself, where hackers broke in and stole the personal details of 77 million users. These personal details included user names, passwords, birth dates, credit card information, and more. Despite the large amount of data accessed in the attack, Sony was not able to detect the breach of security until April 19. The next day, the network was shut down, and all PlayStation 3 users were unable to access any of the online features of their consoles. Sony told its customers that it was aware of the problem (C. Williams, 2011; M. Williams, 2011).

On April 21, the company responded to users once again

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