No one will know the real cost to Sony of the hacking of the PlayStation Network for some time to come, but that hasn’t stop speculation running wild.
The Ponemon Institute, a data-security research firm from Traverse City, MI, has spoken to Forbes about the PSN attack and believes that Sony’s losses could run into billions. Earlier this week, Sony issued a warning to over 70 million users worldwide that the hacker responsible for bringing the Network to its knees may have stolen names, addresses, emails and credit card information.
The Institute claims that the average cost of a data breach in 2010 was $318 per malicious act. By those calculations, Sony could be in a whole lot of bother if millions of users are affected. With over 70 million PSN accounts reportedly breached, this could mean a major disaster for the company.
Visa has reassured any customers whose accounts are affected that they should be able to claim their money back, but the real issue now for PlayStation customers is simply ensuring they follow a few basic guidelines to ensure their PSN details aren’t being used fraudulently.
Sony has said that the PSN should back online within a week, but it’s hard to predict just how deep the issue will be until the dust settles down. Meanwhile, be vigilant, keep an eye on the bank account associated with your PSN account, and change your PSN password immediately as soon as you can log-on.