Sony head not informed of 2008 PSN hacks

Sony chief Sir Howard Stringer has said he wasn't even aware of past attacks on the PlayStation Network.

Bloomberg reports Stringer didn't have any knowledge of an attack on the PSN three years ago, during which European account holders' personal information may have been compromised, or another in which the developer network was breached by a London teen.

Speaking of the attacks of mid-April, thanks to which the PlayStation Store is still offline, Stringer said Sony didn't realise how serious the attack was at first.

"I really don’t think I could apologize for not knowing. It’s a whole new experience for everybody at this scale," he said.

Although Sony has been adamant that it had reasonable security in place, Stringer did say Sony just plain weren't expecting hacker activity.

“We have a network that gave people services free,” he said.

“It didn’t seem like the likeliest place for an attack.”

Sony has assembled a Welcome Back package in reparation to consumers, including free identity theft protection for US citizens. The attacks and consequences are estimated to cost Sony around £106 million.

Thanks, Kotaku.