PlayStation: Recovery prolonged in some regions of Asia

It seems that Sony consumers still need to wait longer before they can enjoy all the functionalities of the PlayStation Network. In the aftermath of the huge security breach that PlayStation Network suffered five weeks ago, Sony is still unable to fully restore many of its features that were hacked into.

The delay in restoring full functionality in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea has caused great outrage in consumers, despite the fact that consumers in these countries only makeup about less than 10 percent of the PlayStation Network market.

A spokesman of Sony has said that the reason for the delay in Japan is due to the need for abiding to the regulations on information security that the Japanese government has however the spokesman declined to discuss the reasons further. The delay for restoring functionality in Japan has led to several bitter comments that questioned whether Sony was really a Japan-based company or not. The delay has sparked heavy criticism from many consumers and governments alike and also threatens to further increase the damages Sony Corp has already suffered. The cyber attack compromised the confidential information of more than 77 million users, many who are now considering to switch to PlayStation’s competitor, Xbox Live from the company Microsoft.

Before the attack, Sony’s shares were up by 1.4 percent but shares have fallen down by 10 percent. Sony has also estimated the loss for the current financial year to about 14 billion yen, which is $172 million, which includes the costs of increasing security measures to hinder future cyber attacks. Sony’s No. 2 has also said that the company has been taking precautions such as testing and security verification to restore the Network completely. Sony has stated that it will state details for South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan once they become available. Last week, Sony was also heavily criticized by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade for having inadequate supervision and for not immediately noticing suspicious activity before the situation got out of hand. Officials at Sony are also to appear and testify in Washington before U.S. lawmakers at a data security hearing.

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