Sony has recently confirmed a data breach that occurred in May, and they’re now dealing with another breach from the previous month. It seems that 2023 isn’t shaping up to be a great year for Sony’s cybersecurity efforts.
Imagine this scenario: a tech behemoth renowned for its groundbreaking innovations is now grappling with not one but two cybersecurity breaches in the span of just one year. Let’s delve deeper into the unfolding situation at Sony.
The first Sony data breach of 2023 confirmed
Sony Interactive Entertainment (Sony) has recently confirmed a significant data breach that compromised the personal information of current and former employees and their family members, impacting roughly 6,800 individuals.
The breach was the result of the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer platform, specifically CVE-2023-34362, a critical-severity SQL injection flaw with the potential for remote code execution. The breach was orchestrated by the Clop ransomware gang, a notorious group known for its large-scale cyberattacks on organizations worldwide. Despite the breach occurring on May 28, 2023, Sony only became aware of the vulnerability three days later when Progress Software, the vendor behind the MOVEit platform, alerted them. Sony swiftly responded by shutting down the affected platform, rectifying the vulnerability, initiating an investigation in collaboration with external cybersecurity experts, and informing relevant law enforcement agencies.
It’s crucial to note that Sony has stressed the breach was confined to the compromised software platform and did not extend to its other systems. Nevertheless, the breach exposed sensitive information belonging to thousands of individuals in the United States. Sony has diligently assessed the nature of the compromised data and issued personalized notifications to affected individuals.
In response to the breach, Sony is providing credit monitoring and identity restoration services through Equifax to those affected. These services will be accessible via unique codes until February 29, 2024. This data breach represents one of the two cybersecurity incidents Sony has encountered in 2023, underscoring the company’s commitment to addressing cybersecurity challenges and safeguarding the interests of its stakeholders.
The recent Sony data breach
In an unexpected turn of events, Sony found itself facing another potential breach just weeks after the initial incident. Reports surfaced on hacking forums, suggesting that a substantial 3.14 GB of data had been pilfered from the company’s systems. Sony wasted no time and immediately initiated an investigation into the matter.
The leaked dataset contained sensitive information pertaining to various aspects, including the SonarQube platform, certificates, Creators Cloud, incident response policies, and more.
CL0P #ransomware group added Sony Group (https://t.co/gWitcpMi4s), a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation to their victim list. #Japan @SonyGroupGlobal#clop #darkweb #databreach #cyberrisk https://t.co/K61asq3o3E pic.twitter.com/JOnfhSdaPF
— FalconFeedsio (@FalconFeedsio) June 22, 2023
However, Sony was quick to clarify that this breach was distinct from the earlier one. It was isolated to a single server situated in Japan, primarily employed for internal testing within the Entertainment, Technology, and Services (ET&S) business division. During the investigation, Sony promptly took this server offline.
Fortunately, there was no indication that customer or business partner data had been stored on the affected server, and no other Sony systems were compromised. Sony reassured its stakeholders that there had been no adverse impact on its day-to-day operations.
For those seeking further information about the Sony data breach, detailed coverage can be found in the related article.
Featured image credit: Nikita Kostrykin/Unsplash
