The recent hack of the PlayStation Network was a major point of discussion at Sony's recent shareholders' meeting, in which Sony's own CEO Howard Stringer voiced his opinions on why the company was the target of such a coordinated and devastating cyber attack.
As reported by Reuters, Stringer discussed the hack with shareholders in Tokyo, an event which forced the PlayStation Network offline for more than three weeks and lowered Sony's stock price as much as 16 percent. Though it seems obvious that the attack was catalyzed by Sony's efforts to end unauthorized modification of its PlayStation 3 console (which hit its peak when the company sued the man responsible for the jailbreak), no person or group has come forward to claim responsibility. But Stringer seems to agree with the consensus.
"We believe that [Sony] first became the subject of attack because we tried to protect our IP, our content, in this case videogames," Stringer said. However, he did seem to defer blame from Sony by, according to Reuters, referencing a "growing list of other companies and organizations that have been hacked."
The fact that many more companies other than Sony have been victimized by hackers recently suggests to Stringer "that cyber terrorism is now a global force, affecting many more companies than just Sony." He continued, "if hackers can hack Citibank, the FBI and the CIA, and yesterday the video game company Electronic Arts, then it's a negative situation that governments may have to resolve."
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Howard Stringer has taken a 16% pay cut, "reflecting the electronics and media giant's third straight year of losses." This report was made on and updated June 28th.
Ouch, a 16% cut at his salary? can only imagine that number
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