In a financial report, Sony announced that it will be investing 1.8 billion yen (or $15 million USD) to investigate the cyberattacks which occurred recently and strengthen its security against future cyberattacks.
Following the development of a film The Interview, Sony suffered a series of hacks throughout the company. As a result, films, software, coding, financial information, and even personal information on both employees records and user accounts for the PlayStation Network were leaked on the Internet.
As a result of the personal information leaked, Sony already has had to take action to remedy the situation. PlayStation users who had information stolen filed a class action lawsuit against Sony. Last month, Sony agreed to a $15 million settlement, giving out games to many users, and cash to some who could document the identity theft.
This additional $15 million expenditure over the cyberattacks is just the latest in a series of financial losses for Sony. In the report, Sony also claimed that it was not hurt financially by the attack. Looking over the data, Sony is stretching the truth a little.
For Sony Pictures, the branch of Sony hit hardest by the attacks, operating income dropped from 24.3 billion yen ($206,563,365 USD) down to only 2.4 billion yen ($20,401,320 USD) in a year over year comparison. Sony claims a few different reasons for this loss, not wanting to credit the cyberattack with causing damage to the company.
All of Sony's divisions are posting a profit in this report, and while the technology giant won't be overall harmed by this drop in income from its Pictures division, it seems clear that the cyberattack is the likely cause. Pirated videos from Sony Pictures are easily viewable on illegal video streaming and file sharing networks. According to Torrentfreak.com, several movies developed by Sony were released online weeks before the scheduled theater releases.
With this new investment to improve its network security, the income of Sony Pictures should return to normal over time.
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