MITS5004 Assignment 2: In-depth Analysis of the Sony 2011 Data Breach

This report provides a detailed analysis of the 2011 Sony PlayStation Network data breach. The introduction highlights the context of the breach, mentioning other significant data breaches of the time, such as those affecting Nasdaq and Epsilon Data Management. The report then dives into the specifics of the Sony breach, detailing the shutdown of the PlayStation Network, the theft of user data including names, addresses, and credit card information, and the extended outage. It explores the security vulnerabilities that allowed the breach to occur and the potential solutions. The report also examines the broader implications of the breach, comparing it to other major security incidents and discussing the evolution of data security concerns. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the scale and impact of the Sony breach and its relevance in the context of increasing cyber security threats. The report also includes references to supporting literature and research papers.

Running head: SONY 2011 DATA BREACH.
SONY 2011 DATA BREACH
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

SONY 2011 DATA BREACH 1
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
A Cyber Catastrophe:.................................................................................................................3
The Rising Storm:......................................................................................................................4
Result:........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................5

2SONY 2011 DATA BREACH
Introduction:
In 2011, various prominent information ruptures made a news nationally.
Organizations, for example, Nasdaq and Epsilon Data Management experienced information
breaks that presented genuine dangers for the business tasks of them. All out-information
misfortune occurrences that are numbered in hundreds, as well as different occurrences
included a huge number of records. A lot of data has been associated with a portion of the
latest information ruptures. Epsilon, the objective of an information rupture in April 2011,
sends 40 billion promoting messages for its business customers every year, and its customers
incorporate 2 of the biggest banks in the United States [1]. The purpose of this paper is to
discuss about the Sony PlayStation Network outage case that was happened in 2011. Because
of the rupture, more than 40 of Epsilon's customers, including Eddie Bauer, TD Ameritrade
and Ethan Allen, reached their clients to educate them their own data may be in danger. Of
the considerable number of information ruptures in 2011, that string of the information breaks
that tormented Sony Corporation that were apparently the highest profile. The Sony company
stood out as truly newsworthy for breaks of its Qiocity and PlayStation Network benefits in
April as programmers got to Sony's customers' close to private data.
A Cyber Catastrophe:
In late April of 2011, Sony, Inc. online PlayStation System (PSN) has been shut down
in the light of an information security break. Over 77 million clients utilize that the system in
nations over the globe, as well as that is one of the indispensable pieces of the framework of
Sony’s computer game [2]. For very nearly of one week, it is neglected by Sony for advising
the PSN clients with regards for the purpose behind the shutdown of the organization. One
message was in this way posted on the site of Sony for expressing that the organization
speculated unidentified people had stolen the users of PSN that are close to personal

3SONY 2011 DATA BREACH
information.19 Stolen information included names, street numbers, email addresses, birth
dates, login information and organize passwords. Later an email was sent to all of the PSN
clients to uncover that Sony suspected the data of the MasterCard that had moreover been
acquired [4]. The Sony company held the PSN that is down for right around one month until
the system continued on May 14, 2011.
The Rising Storm:
Albeit phenomenal in the measure of stolen data as well as the noticeable quality of
the organization, Sony isn't the 1st company to encounter a significant security rupture.
Around 2000, scholarly observers as well as rehearsing hazard experts started to perceive the
huge obligation hazards where development towards the electronic based information
stockpiling as well as the Web business presented to organizations [6]. Over a prior of the
decade, organizations were defying ― data and information robbery, inclusion of pernicious
codes, disavowal of administration assaults, get to infringement, disappointment of security
of the PC, mistakes of the programming, and abuse or miss-appropriation of the assets that
are impalpable. In the late of 1990s, a few gauges put the costs of the business that is
identified with PC security that breaks in the several billions of dollars in 2000, causing
evaluated harms upwards of $15 billion to business, people, and to the governments over the
globe. The damages because of electronic based security ruptures have not hindered since
[5]. In the course of recent years, digital lawbreakers have penetrated information systems at
real organizations counting TJ Maxx/Marshalls, Barnes and Noble, Wells Fargo and Bank of
America. At least one of these information ruptures went unfamiliar for right around two
years, as well as some in all likelihood have been never discovered.

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Result:
Because of the void in private solutions for person purchasers exploited by
information breaks, government enactment has been proposed as well as a few states that
have authorized enactment and requiring encryption of the information. However,
recommendations for across the board change have remained simply that kind of the
proposals. The Trust Act and Data Accountability, presented in 2009, would have charged the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with setting guidelines on putting away and the transfer of
individual information [3]. Organizations and associations that damaged those proclaimed
guidelines that should be liable for genuinely soak fines. That bill likewise called for
shoppers that to be told when the own data of them that was compromised. The Breach
Notification and Data Security Act is one of the more ongoing bills that is proposed,
concerning information breaches. Like the forerunner of it, the bill that is called for FTC
coordinated guidelines, punishments, and benchmarks for the encryption information.
Although the bills that are proposed don't call for protection that is required for covering
information ruptures, no less than one onlooker has noticed the likelihood of incorporating
such an arrangement in a new government law.
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that All out-information misfortune occurrences that are
numbered in hundreds, as well as different occurrences included a huge number of records. A
lot of data has been associated with a portion of the latest information ruptures. Epsilon, the
objective of an information rupture in April 2011, sends 40 billion promoting messages for its
business customers every year, and its customers incorporate 2 of the biggest banks in the
United States. Because of the rupture, more than 40 of Epsilon's customers, including Eddie
Bauer, TD Ameritrade and Ethan Allen, reached their clients to educate them their own data

5SONY 2011 DATA BREACH
may be in danger [1]. Of the considerable number of information ruptures in 2011, the string
of information breaks that tormented Sony Corporation were apparently to the highest profile.

6SONY 2011 DATA BREACH
References:
[1] Black, John. "Developments in data security breach liability." The Business
Lawyer 69, no. 1 (2013): 199-207.
[2] Goldberg, Ed. "Preventing a data breach from becoming a disaster." Journal of
business continuity & emergency planning 6, no. 4 (2013): 295-303.
[3] Goode, Sigi, Hartmut Hoehle, Viswanath Venkatesh, and Susan A. Brown. "User
compensation as a data breach recovery action: An investigation of the Sony
PlayStation Network breach." MIS Quarterly 41, no. 3 (2017).
[4] Hinz, Oliver, Michael Nofer, Dirk Schiereck, and Julian Trillig. "The influence of
data theft on the share prices and systematic risk of consumer electronics
companies." Information & Management 52, no. 3 (2015): 337-347.
[5] Listokin, Siona. "Industry self-regulation of consumer data privacy and security." J.
Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 32 (2015): 15.
[6] Spiekermann, Sarah, Alessandro Acquisti, Rainer Böhme, and Kai-Lung Hui. "The
challenges of personal data markets and privacy." Electronic Markets 25, no. 2
(2015): 161-167.