Sony has announced they will be hiring Phillip Reitinger to head up their cyber security efforts. Reitinger previously held the position of deputy under secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in 2009 and then quickly became the head of the National Cybersecurity Center. In other words, Sony is bringing in a big gun to try and thwart any future hacking attempts.
Reitinger left the Department of Homeland Security this past June claiming personal reasons as his justification for leaving. His new position at Sony is actually two roles grouped into one, he was appointed a senior vice president and chief information security officer.
Reitinger is walking into a tough position at Sony. This appointment comes only a few months after the entire PlayStation Network (PSN) was compromised by hackers and the personal information of all of its users was taken. The service was taken offline quickly and Sony worked to restore the service with improved security. Sony compensated angry users with a number of incentives including anti-theft insurance policies and free credit checks because some of the stolen information included encrypted credit card data. Sony president Kaz Hirai even apologized publicly for the breach and the related consequences.
In addition to the identity theft insurance policies Sony instituted a Welcome Back package offering everyone free PlayStation 3 games, free PlayStation Portable games and free movies, among other benefits. Combining the costs to beef up PSN security with the Welcome Back package and identify theft programs, the hacking incident was incredibly costly for Sony, both in actual dollars spent and in reputation.
Reitinger’s pedigree must bring with it some expectations at Sony. It’s likely safe to say it will be expected that this hacking nonsense will not rear its head again, considering the man overseeing these types of operations has previously worked at DHS. One has to wonder if hackers will consider bringing Sony down again to be a new challenge, not only to further embarrass the company but also to embarrass Reitinger. We’ll have to see what kinds of changes in the cyber security domain get put into place at the company and how Reitinger handles any other network disasters that may come his way.
