The newest Playstation Network breach-spawned lawsuit alleges that Sony fired a significant portion of network security employees prior to the hacking of 100 million+ accounts across PSN and SOE. According to the court document, Sony “laid off a substantial percentage of its Sony Online Entertainment workforce, including a number of employees in the Network Operations Center,” a department which would include key personnel that could have been involved in post-breach stabilization.
The suit alleges that Sony also spent an inordinate amount of money favorably on their proprietary DevNetwork, “but recklessly declined to provide adequate protections for its customers’ personal information.” Sony Corporation of America, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment International are all named as defendants in the class action suit, which also claims the system suffered minor hacks before the network was fully breached, seeming to indicate that the earlier threats that were ignored could have helped either prevent or soften the blow of the April network breach.
“Sony sought to cut its costs at the expense of its customers by terminating a significant number of employees immediately prior to the security breach, including personnel responsible for maintaining the security of the network,” said the complaint, as obtained by Gamasutra.