Sony recruits former U.S. Homeland Security official for security role

Back in July, Sony Network Entertainment’s Tim Schaaff, at a MobileBeat press conference, described the PlayStation Network hack as a “great experience“. To be fair to him, what he meant was a great learning experience.

Sony learned the hard way that their security was less than ideal, and the catalyst of this realization was a breach of personal data, possibly including credit card information, of several million PlayStation Network users.

In addition to having their personal data compromised, users were locked out of Playstation Network for a little over a month as Sony scrambled to get their servers secure enough to be opened back up to the public.

As Schaaff said, though, Sony has learned from their experience, and is working to beef up their security. As part of this new focus, Sony announced today they’ve hired Philip Reitinger, former director of the US National Cyber Security Center.

“Certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment,” a Sony spokesman said. “We are looking to bolster our network security even further.”

Reitinger will be taking on not only the role of chief information security officer, but also that of the senior vice president of global information security and privacy at Sony.

For the weary cosumers – and shareholders, no doubt – this move will only be a small step towards winning back consumer confidence. Sony may be beginning to pick up steam again, but they’ve got a long way to go before they can put the situation behind them.

via Reuters