Sony calls in forensic help as lawsuits pile up

Sony has been forced to call in third-party security experts and the FBI to investigate how hackers managed to break into its network to pilfer the personal details of up to 100 million customers last month.

Computer forensics software vendors Guidance Software and Data Forte, and internal audit firm Protiviti, are all reported to be working with Sony to establish what went wrong.

The FBI, meanwhile, will be looking to use whatever information they manage to glean to try to catch the perpetrators.

It's obviously the right move by the Japanese electronics firm, but some will be critical that it has moved too slowly over the fortnight since the breach was discovered.

Customer anger has turned into something slightly more tangible for Sony, after another lawsuit was filed against the firm for alleged privacy breaches. The Canadian law firm that filed, McPhadden Samac Tuov, is seeking over $1bn in damages.

Lead plaintiff in the action, 21 year-old Mississauga resident and PlayStation user Natasha Maksimovic, said: "If you can't trust a huge multi-national corporation like Sony to protect your private information, who can you trust? It appears to me that Sony focuses more on protecting its games than its PlayStation users."

This action comes on top of another filed last week by the Rothken Law Firm for "failure to maintain adequate computer data security of consumer personal data and financial data".

Aside from the incalculable reputation damage, this could turn into a pretty costly security incident for Sony.