Hacked Off

At this point Sony is just embarrassing.

Sony Corp has been hacked again.

So-Net, the Internet service provider unit of Japan's Sony, alerted customers an intruder broke into its system and stole virtual points worth $1,225 from account holders.

This latest setback comes after personal information of some 100 million Sony user accounts was stolen last month when its online gaming systems, the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment, were hacked.

Security experts said there were not surprised the electronics company has yet to clean up weaknesses in its massive global network. Earlier this week, Sony shut down one of its websites set up to help millions of users change their passwords after finding a security flaw.

"Sony is going through a pretty rigorous process and finding the holes to fill," said Josh Shaul, chief technology officer for computer security firm Application Security Inc.

"The hackers are going through the same process and they're putting their fingers in the holes faster than Sony can fill them."

Personally I'm glad I never got involved in the PlayStation Network or any SOE online games, and judging from Sony's ridiculous response to their own massive security problems, I never will.  If you can't maintain security on your network like this, then customers will walk and rightfully so.  I have no sympathy for Sony, either.

Now Sony's customers, I feel for.  But I'll never be one of them, not for any online services.