Sony estimates hack cost at $171M
Sony has revised its fiscal year forecasts today, including a $171 million hit to operating income from the PSN/SOE hacks, and $1.8 billion due to the Japanese earthquake.
Sony has revised its fiscal year forecasts today, accounting for recent market shifters like the network hacks and Japanese earthquake. "As of today, our current associated costs [related to the PSN/SOE hack] for the fiscal year ending March 2012 are estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen [$171.4 million*] on the consolidated operating income level," reads the investor call script. The estimated cost includes identity theft programs, the Welcome Back program, customer support, security improvements, legal experts, and revenue decreases.
The estimate warns that while it hasn't received any confirmed reports of identity theft or credit card fraud, those "key variables" could impact the costs. The company also isn't including the possible costs of the class action lawsuits, since the suits are so early and estimating the outcome would be difficult.
The impact of the Japanese earthquake is more severe, with Sony estimating a 150 billion yen ($1.83 billion) hit to operating income for FY2012, with an additional 17 billion yen ($208.1 million) in the fiscal year that ended in March. This is due to a new life insurance policy provision, decreased sales, and "idle facility costs at manufacturing sites." The latter point stands out, since Sony's Jack Tretton implied that the upcoming NGP may not launch in all territories this year due to quake damage -- a comment that was quickly denied by a Sony spokesperson.
Sony also has to repair some machinery, equipment, and buildings, totaling roughly 11 billion yen ($134.6 million), but expects almost all of the costs to be recovered by their insurance policies.
* currency exchange based on Google conversion at the time of publishing.
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Steve Watts posted a new article, Sony estimates hack cost at $171M.
Sony has revised its fiscal year forecasts today, including a $171 million hit to operating income from the PSN/SOE hacks, and $1.8 billion due to the Japanese earthquake.-
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Since it's never happened to most people, everybody always says "what's the big deal about identity theft? LMAO all u Sony crybabies. GET OVER IT"
Well, a co-worker told me the ins and outs of his experience with identity theft and it sounds like a goddamn nightmare. Not only did it ruin his credit, but took him YEARS to clear his name and all the hassle that goes with it.
When Mom's credit card was the one on PSN, who cares right?-
Hur hur, I don't share yer opinion so I must be a child.
I didn't say get over it to everyone else, I said I find it hard to empathize. It was a blank statement. I'm not afraid of Identity Theft, so I don't know why everyone else is scared of it. Period. You are trying to argue against my -opinion-. And it's on the internet. That's double stupid.-
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No, I get the point, but you can't call me out for hyperbole and then do it yourself.
I was saying I wasn't scared of credit fraud, cause hey, how much poorer can I get? It was hyperbole. And they want to get their panties in a twist about it.
So I called him out on comparing credit card fraud to life-altering tragedies. Do you get this? Are you following along? The bouncing ball onscreen? -
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why would they be butt hurt? People just enjoy pointing out someone else's mistake or how stupid someone else is. People love to correct other people. In this case they are correcting you. It can give a sense of superiority or can just be fun if you're bored. It is possible some people are offended by your lack of shock and awe from identity theft but I bet they are just calling you out because it feels good to correct someone when they are wrong.
I would bet money they are not butt hurt. -
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Unless you are some homeless dude who lives in a van down by the river (and who apparently shacks at an Internet cafe with the money from turning tricks)... and you plan on being a homeless dude who lives down by the river for the rest of your natural life... you SHOULD be worried about identity theft. It's a very bad thing.
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I'm not really sure what they could do with your name and address. That's not really identity theft since that information is available for anyone listed in the yellow pages. There still hasn't been any reports of credit card fraud sourced from the PSN break in and all of the intrusion analysis that has been released so far have been stating no credit card information was gained from the PSN intrusion.
I was sort of freaking out about the personal information leak through PSN but when I thought about it, they really cannot do anything with the information entered in PSN unless they get your credit card info. People seem to be treating this like they also got your SSN or something.
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actually http://www.shacknews.com/article/68303/sony-online-entertainment-loses-12700 so yeah you're wrong
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Dailytech had a much better article on this:
http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Appears+to+Have+Lost+Yet+Another+User+Database/article21697.htm
Quoting from the article:
"The company say its expects only to have to pay ¥14B (about $172M USD) for the PSN intrusion. This puts its expected expense per lost record at about $2 USD per account."
The article mentions that the industry average for similar data breaches is $318 per user. The $2 estimate Sony went public with is probably meant to calm their stock holders. Regardless, when Sony told you that your personal info was lost and the burden of credit protection and safeguards against identify theft was ultimately on you, that you were basically on your own, they really meant it.
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