It seems that the PSN breach has gotten the attention of the US Homeland Security. Reports are coming in from Kotaku and Joystiq that Homeland security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) is “working with law enforcement, international partners and Sony to assess the situation.”
The Department of Homeland Security is tasked to protect the United State’s critical infrastructures. So at first glance the PSN breach, doesn’t seem warrant a look into by the said agency. However DHS seems that looking into the breach seems to be connected to a bigger possible problem.
Nextgov reports that while gaming and music networks may not be considered “critical infrastructure”, the data that perpetrators accessed could be used to infiltrate other systems that are critical to people’s financial security. According to computer experts (as expressed on the nextgov site), stolen passwords or profile information that customers have used to register on websites can provide hackers with the tools to crack into corporate servers or open bank accounts.
It was reported by Sony earlier this week that personal information like names, addresses, email addresses, login names and passwords may have been stolen by the supposed hackers while credit card information was at least encrypted.
Aside from DHS, the FBI is also on board with the investigation which only means things are really looking grim for Sony. How can Sony jump back after this? We can only guess (and hope- for you optimists out there). However the odds are stacked against Sony specially with a class action suit (is a case filed when the subject matter of the case (i.e. failure to pay minimum wage) is a common interest to many persons so numerous that it is impractical for them to all file a single case each -thanks to a law student friend of mine who gave me the meaning) that can cripple if not kill the company if the courts favor the users against Sony in the proceedings.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.