Sony is also busy flipping the PlayStation Network switch back to the “on” position around the world , but one locale where it won’t be doing so just yet is its homeland of Japan. The Dow Jones newshounds report that the Japanese government refuses to permit Sony to reactivate its ailing network until satisfaction is reached on a few outstanding issues. The primary is that the company’s promised counter-hacking measures announced on May 1st haven’t yet been fully enacted — though details of what has or hasn’t been done yet are understandably unavailable — and the second one is that Japan desires to see further preventive measures taken to guarantee users users’ mastercard numbers and other private data won’t be exposed through their use of Sony’s online services again. These sound like rational demands to us, and Sony is already in talks with the authorities to make certain it lives as much as their expectations.
By Takashi Mochizuki
Published May 15, 2011
| Dow Jones Newswires
TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Sony Corp. (SNE, 6758.TO) is just not allowed to restart its halted video game services in Japan until it provides further information on what measures it has taken since an earlier hacking incident, a Japanese regulatory official said Sunday.
“We met with Sony on May 6 and 13, and basically we wish two things from them,” Kazushige Nobutani, director of the Media and Content Industry department on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, told Dow Jones Newswires.
He listed two areas where it requires further explanation before approval would be given following the incidents regarding its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment videogame services.
“The primary is preventative measures. As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they’re going to do at the May 1 press conference,” he said, adding that he couldn’t provide details at the outstanding issues for security reasons.
The second one was in how Sony hoped to regain consumer confidence over personal data along with mastercard information.
“There have been similar cases up to now that were as a result of other firms, and we’re asking Sony whether their measures are more than enough when put next to countermeasures taken during the past,” he said.
Sony began a limited and phased restoration of the services Saturday, bringing the corporate a step in the direction of normalcy following an attack on its systems that compromised personal information for greater than 100 million user accounts last month. It said that it is going to begin bringing its PlayStation Network back online within the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the center East.
“We’re still in talks with various authorities (in Japan and Asia),” Sony spokeswoman Kumie Tanaka said.” By receiving advice from the industry ministry, we want to have the service in Japan ready.”
Drexel University turns to 3D scanners, printers to construct robotic dinosaurs
TiVo releases Q4 results, announces transcoder and IP set-top box at the way
