Sony Stops Fighting £250k Breach Fine ‘For Security Reasons’

Sony has admitted it won’t carry on its appeal against a £250,000 fine handed to the firm in Britain following serious breaches of its PlayStation networks in 2011.

The consumer tech titan said, without noting the irony, it had given up the ghost because it fears it would jeopardise its security if it gave away too many details about its network during proceedings.

Sony gives up appeal

“After careful consideration we are withdrawing our appeal,” a spokesperson from Sony

“This decision reflects our commitment to protect the confidentiality of our network security from disclosures in the course of the proceeding. We continue to disagree with the decision on the merits.”

The fine was handed to Sony by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after its PlayStation Network was breached and data on 77 million users exposed. Further breaches of SCEE-related infrastructure led to data of millions more being compromised.

A lengthy ICO investigation then ensued, with delays caused by lengthy protestations from Sony lawyers. The ICO eventually decided, however, security measures in place were simply not good enough and issued a monetary penalty.

When the fine was handed out in January, Sony said it strongly disagreed with the ICO’s ruling and was planning an appeal.

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Thomas Brewster

Tom Brewster is TechWeek Europe's Security Correspondent. He has also been named BT Information Security Journalist of the Year in 2012 and 2013.

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