UPDATED 09:05 EDT / OCTOBER 12 2011

Sony In The Slumps With PSN Breach, TV Recall

Last April, over 100 million Sony PlayStation Network accounts were hacked, though it wasn’t until a week had passed that they learned about the breach in their security.  It took more than two months to iron out their security flaws, only to be hacked again, and Sony vowed to overhaul their security to prevent the incident from happening in the future.

Sony announced that they have locked over 100,000 PSN accounts after they noticed a spike in unauthorized user login attempts.  Sony believes that hackers gained login data from other sites and used those data to log into PSN accounts because many people use the same password and username for many online accounts, making them susceptible to hacking.  The incident started last Friday and lasted until Monday.  Sony did not see any security flaws on their part, as they stepped up their own security measures.  The PSN maker urges users to change their passwords regularly and not to use the same password for all their accounts.

“We were able to move swiftly, and we believe very few accounts were actually accessed,” said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony.

But it’s not only the PSN that encountered trouble.  Sony is recalling over 1.6 million Bravia flat-panel TVs sold worldwide for faulty components that could cause a fire.

Yuki Shima, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Sony, said that the recall happened after a September incident where a consumer saw fire and smoke coming from the Bravia TV.  This wasn’t the first reported incident on the faulty product, as the company has received complaints since 2008.  Shima added that the faulty component in the backlight systems may be the source of overheating that can melt the top of the television.

Sony shares declined by 48% this year, but rose by 1.6% to close at 1,517 yen ($19.78) in Tokyo trading on Wednesday.

On a lighter note, Sony is said to be vying for feature rights of the Steve Jobs biopic, which will be based on the authorized biography written by Walter Isaacson, former CNN chairman and Time Magazine managing editor.  The book is to be released on October 24.  Rumor has it, Mark Gordon will produce the film and the movie will be an MG360 project, which is the movie production partnership between Gordon and Management 360.

Sony Pictures is said to be offering $1 million for the feature rights, but Gordon is offering $3 million though Sony is being mum about the issue.  Sony is said to be the perfect company to turn the book into a movie, as they were successful in The Social Network and Moneyball.  Before Jobs’ death, only one movie was made regarding his rise in the tech world, Pirates of Silicon Valley, where Noah Wyle played the young Jobs.  At the Macworld NY event in July of 1999, Jobs made Wyle came out on stage dressed like him to start his keynote.  Jobs fans are already thinking about who should play Jobs in the said biopic.  Some fans have interesting suggestions as to who should play Jobs starting from Ashton Kutcher, Michael Stuhlbarg, Terry O’Quinn, George Clooney, Edward Norton and Steven Spielberg to play the older Jobs.

Speaking of Jobs, a little fun fact, did you know that the reason behind his signature turtleneck getup was he wanted Apple employees to wear uniforms, which he saw from Sony employees?  Unfortunately, the idea wasn’t embraced by Apple employees so instead he decided to have his own uniform. He asked Issey Miyake, the one who designed the Sony uniforms, to make him a turtleneck.  Miyake made him hundreds of those turtlenecks, for which Jobs said “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.”


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