Sony CEO apologizes; gives $1m identity theft insurance

Tokyo, May 6: Just a day after the online gaming giant Sony claimed the hands of 'Anonymous' behind the Sony PlayStation Network (SPN) hacking, the company's chief executive officer, Sir Howard Stringer, publically apologized to the customers for the security breach.

In a post in PlayStation blog, Sony Chairman and CEO, Stringer apologized and announced that Sony had implemented a program for their customers that offers a "$1 million identity theft insurance policy per user." Stringer, who remained silent after the breach, also said that PSN and Qriocity services, which streams videos and music, will be back online in the coming days.

"As a company we--and I--apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible," Stringer wrote.

Stringer also addressed criticism about Sony's inefficiency in informing the customers about their stolen data. He said that forensic analysis by the technical experts hired by Sony was a complex and time consuming process.

"As soon as we discovered the potential scope of the intrusion, we shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services and hired some of the best technical experts in the field to determine what happened. I wish we could have gotten the answers we needed sooner, but forensic analysis is a complex, time-consuming process. Hackers, after all, do their best to cover their tracks, and it took some time for our experts to find those tracks and begin to identify what personal information had--or had not--been taken," Stringer said.

Sony CEO informed that the company is offering $1 million identity-theft insurance policy to the US customers and soon this will be extended to other countries also. US customers can enroll in the program through an email they receive in coming days and the registration will be open till Jun 18.

As informed earlier, Stringer stated the company's plan to offer 'Welcome Back' package as a damage control measure to soften the customers, who are away from their favourite games for almost three weeks.

"As we have announced, we will be offering a “Welcome Back" package to our customers once our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are up and running. This will include, among other benefits, a month of free PlayStation Plus membership for all PSN customers, as well as an extension of subscriptions for PlayStation Plus and Music Unlimited customers to make up for time lost," Sony CEO informed.

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