After nearly a month, users of Sony's Playstation Network, or PSN, can go online yet again. Parts of the network are still down, specifically the store, but it's expected to be back at the end of the month. For their inconvenience, users will be given free games, a free month of the paid PSN Plus service, and the promise that it won't happen again.
Of course, there's a reason for the month of network downtime, and it's a relatively nefarious one. As it turns out, Sony's security protocols were breached, and the names and addresses of millions of users was accessed. There's also a chance that credit card information was accessed as well, though it was at least stored separately from the rest of the data. The free stuff is an apology for dropping the ball on security.
It's easy to focus on Sony's failures in this case. After all, it was their network that was accessed. However, I would argue that this was going to be an inevitable result, and if Sony was not hacked there would be another online business which had its databases accessed by shady individuals. In fact, I would argue that in the next few years, attempts to hack databases like Sony's or any other similar company will be the new bank robbery, as online transactions are so common.
Just sticking with PSN, the service has millions of users. Of those users, many are going to buy things like games, additional content, movies, and so on. To buy anything online, they're going to use a credit card most of the time. If a hacker can get access to even a fraction of that credit card data, they will have millions of dollars to access even before the card companies and regular people notice.
Worse still, it's not a robbery that you can immediately notice. In Sony's case, the breach happened days before they shut down services to investigate. That was with the hackers involved leaving a note. It could be possible to get the same data without leaving a trace, a scary thought.
Given the sheer amount of online transactions daily, it's clear that this could be a very serious problem. It's not like people are going to go back to being unable to buy content online, even if one of the world's largest corporations couldn't manage to have a completely secure network. Since we're not going back, we're going to need to find a way to make it more secure.
As people buy more online, the solution is for credit card companies and these online vendors to work together to figure out a more secure system. The PSN situation should serve as a warning, and incentive to find new ways of making these transactions more secure and increase overall consumer confidence. It's an advantage for all parties, credit card companies don't want fraudulent charges, online vendors want people confident enough to purchase from them, and consumers don't want their money stolen.
Keeping money secure is harder now than it has ever been in the past, especially with the wide range of ways to spend it. We've already had a warning in the form of Sony's online problems, so it's time to heed that warning, and figure out how to avoid these situations.
This is about more than Sony's online services, it's about everyone.
