Opinion

Lessons in Privacy From Sony’s Data Theft

— August 12, 2011

By Vasant Dhar, Professor and Head, Information Systems Group, Daniel P. Paduano Faculty Fellow & Director, Center for Digital Economy Research and Arun Sundararajan, Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, NEC Faculty Fellow & Doctoral Coordinator, IOMS-Information Systems

The fallout of the Sony PlayStation data breach ... was more a failure in management than a failure in security technology.

By Vasant Dhar, Professor and Head, Information Systems Group, Daniel P. Paduano Faculty Fellow & Director, Center for Digital Economy Research and Arun Sundararajan, Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, NEC Faculty Fellow & Doctoral Coordinator, IOMS-Information Systems

June 7, 2011 -- The fallout of the Sony PlayStation data breach, in which hackers stole personal information about more than 100m gamers, was more a failure in management than a failure in security technology. The latest estimated loss of $171m seems conservative, capturing only direct costs to Sony, and preceding the company’s admission of three subsequent global attacks in Canada, Thailand and Indonesia. The true extent of damage of these breaches and their reputational consequences will likely unfold over time.

Read full article as published in the Financial Times.