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News ICO slaps Sony with £250,000 fine over PSN breach

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 24 Jan 2013.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. greigaitken

    greigaitken Minimodder

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    "£250,000 fine - the highest fine permissible under the legislation used."
    I spy some legislation that needs an update
     
  3. Griffter

    Griffter What's a Dremel?

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    i guess PS CEO will have to pay it himself with the money he earned from one days work. oh what a shame, hope he can get through the month now.
     
  4. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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  5. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    My bad: I was thinking of the old fine guidelines, which topped out at £250,000. I say "old" - the new ones came into force in 2009, so you'd think I'd have got used to them by now...

    I've updated the piece - ta!
     
  6. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Appealing against £250,000?

    Surely it will cost them more in legal fees and bad PR if they dont just pay up.
     
  7. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    But the ruling potentially opens Sony up to civil claims from victims. I mean, you could bring a suit against Sony regardless of the ruling, but "and ICO said it was their fault" is a convincing argument to bring to a judge...
     
  8. Necrow

    Necrow Minimodder

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    £250K - That's nothing for Sony, a minute or so of global trading. What they should do in these cases is put a ban on them exporting good for 1 to 2 weeks. That would be a much bigger fine and would have a better effect.
     
  9. Eggy

    Eggy Minimodder

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    Can't count the number of services that got hacked and might have lost customer data. It has not even been proven that credit card data was stolen so you will have a hard time proving you need to be compensated.
     
  10. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    The damage to there reputation probably cost them more, and yes i know there is no way to measure such a thing.
     
  11. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    Just a question, where does the money go from stuff like this?

    Surely it would be better off improving security at Sony, than taking it away from them.
     
  12. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    AFAIK it goes to the consolidated fund which is the governments general bank account.
     
  13. Ream

    Ream What's a Dremel?

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    Pointless fine, waste of time and money even processing this throught the courts, unless fines are going to be massive 10mill+ then most companys wont care.
     
  14. Metaporic

    Metaporic Minimodder

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    Its not the fine that matters its the symbolism. Sure if we are talking a fine of several million then it matters, but the fact is anything short of the hundreds of millions can probably be shrugged of by a big (if struggling) company like Sony.

    What counts is that the company has been shown up as wrong and left red-faced. It also as mentioned opens the door to a whole bunch of consumer lawsuits as well as setting further precedent for related cases for the company.

    While its not as effective as a massive fine it has clearly still had some form of impact on Sony if they are planning to appeal for an amount that is unlikely to even register on their radar. Tbh being found guilty seriously undermines consumer trust in Sony with important account information, most of all credit card information that is important to services such as PSN (For both parties). Its just another blow for what was already a PR disaster. There is no longer anyway for the company to state innocence or that it was wholly the shear determination and skill of the hackers.
     
  15. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    It must really suck for them as i think they fessed up to the ICO in the first place with what happened.
    Makes me wonder if they had not informed the ICO would they eventually have been investigated anyway?
     

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