Simple courtesy, please

When I found out about the security breach that occurred on the PlayStation Network last week, I wasn’t actually angry with Sony. With any online service the risk of a compromise is inherent. What upset me is that Sony waited a week to let its customers know that their data had been compromised, and when they finally did come clean, it was on a blog as opposed to sending an email to their customers to ensure it would be seen.

I was fine when I couldn’t access the online functions on my console, and I was fine when it remained offline for a week. I think I speak for most people when I say that we can deal with something like that as adults. Alerting me through a blog post that my information has been stolen by criminals a week after the fact, however, is unacceptable. Sony needs to beef up their security (maybe stop storing our passwords in an unencrypted, easily accessible plain-text format?), but they’re also going to need to beef up their PR. I doubt the snarky antics of television persona Kevin Butler will fix things this time around.

Dylan Nelson

Cheney