Sony has agreed to pay a hefty fine over its 2011 data breach. Back in April of 2011, Sony's PlayStation Network was hit with an attack that forced PSN offline for an extended period of time. In January of this year, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) levied a hefty fine against Sony for what it called 'a serious breach' of the UK's Data Protection Act. The ICO on Thursday tweeted that Sony has agreed to pay the fine.
PSN was breached in the spring of 2011 and the data of millions of users compromised. Speaking via a statement released in January, David Smith, Deputy Commissioner and Director of Data Protection, said Sony should have been more careful about how it protected users' data.
"If you are responsible for so many payment card details and log-in details then keeping that personal data secure has to be your priority," Smith said. "In this case that just didn’t happen, and when the database was targeted – albeit in a determined criminal attack – the security measures in place were simply not good enough."
PSN was offline for several weeks following the breach. When the service came back online, Sony attempted to restore some of users' good faith with a welcome back package that included multiple free games and free access to PlayStation Plus.
