Sony defends delay in public PSNgate announcement

Two weeks ago, a Tokyo press conference found Sony to be apologetic and remorseful. Now though, the company has had enough of being the victim, and is striking back.

Chief Executive Howard Stringer has lashed out at critics who accuse the company of being "too slow" when it came to notifying customers of the unauthorised attack that lead to the PlayStation Network and Qriocity servers being offline for more than three weeks.

Stringer hadn't spoken publicly on the situation outside of an open letter to customers, but broke his silence to explain that his company had faced an "unprecedented situation".

"Most of these breaches go unreported by companies," he continued. "Forty-three percent (of companies) notify victims within a month. We reported in a week. You're telling me my week wasn't fast enough?"

Stringer's outburst, covered by Reuters, also covered the fact that the Japanese hardware giant is expected to face monetary charges following the incident.

"There's a charge for the system being down," Stringer explained. "...a charge for identity theft insurance.

"The charges mount up, but they don't add up to a number we can quantify just yet."

Sony is currently assessing the damage, which is considered to be the biggest attack in internet history.