Sony cut online security staff two weeks before it was hacked

Lawsuits against Japanese electronics giant Sony have revealed that the company laid off a number of employees responsible for network security, two weeks before attacks brought down the PlayStation Network.

In the lawsuit, Sony is accused of spending heavily on protecting its corporate data, neglecting to inject the money needed to secure consumer information.

In the weeks since Sony suffered attacks and then slowly brought services back online, the company has been named in a number of additional lawsuits from customers unhappy with their details being stolen. One of the additional lawsuits states that Sony knew about its security weaknesses, referencing earlier attacks on the company’s networks.

Reuters, after speaking with someone with knowledge of the matter, said that the company had laid off “a substantial percentage” of its Network Operations Centre – the very people that would have dealt with attacks on the company.

It is not known that if a larger team would have prevented data loss but it does highlight a massive oversight by the company if a greater presence could have better dealt with the problems it faced. It certainly won’t help the company defend itself in the courts.