First Garmer Lawsuit Filed Against Sony

The first lawsuit by a gamer was filed yesterday by Kristopher Johns, 36, of Birmingham, Ala., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Johns accuses Sony of not taking "reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data of its users."


The lawsuit is the result of the personal data, including customer names, addresses, e-mail addresses, birthdays, PlayStation Network and Qriocity passwords, and user names, as well as online user handles--was obtained illegally by an "unauthorized person" between April 17 and 19. Sony has insisted that to their knowledge there is "No Evidence" that any information has been compromised.

Kristopher Johns believes that Sony took too long to notify customers that their information have been exposed to hackers. Sony did not allow its customers "to make an informed decision as to whether to change credit card numbers, close the exposed accounts, check their credit reports, or take other mitigating actions. He is not alone in this thought.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. Blumenthal yesterday wrote a letter to Jack Tretton, president and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, saying he was troubled that the company had not notified customers sooner about the breach. He also called for Sony to provide affected customers with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services for two years to protect against identity theft.