Sony executive describes PSN security breach as “a great experience”

By Trevor Mogg July 13, 2011

If you were a Sony executive being interviewed about April’s massive security breach which knocked offline 77 million PSN accounts for more than a month, cost the company somewhere in the region of $171 million and angered millions of users around the world, how might you describe the whole debacle?

“An embarrassing calamity,” perhaps? “A monumental month of misery,” possibly? Not so Tim Schaaff.

Schaaff, the president of Sony Network Entertainment, described it, somewhat surprisingly, as “a great experience.” The Sony executive was talking to VentureBeat’s Dylan Tweney on Wednesday at the MobileBeat conference in San Francisco.

According to PC Mag, Schaaff told Tweney that Sony had been “very, very pleasantly surprised by the experience.”

Regarding today’s much improved state of affairs, Schaaff said, “Everything’s live again around the world, and the amazing thing through all of this is that the customers have all come back, and network performance is better than ever, sales are better than ever.”

The executive, who is no doubt feeling hugely relieved that the company has come through what was one of the most troubling episodes in its history, told Tweney: “We’re in a place where we’re really looking forward again to what’s next, what’s new, and how we can keep growing the network.” He continued: “It’s a pretty crazy event that we went through but we survived, and we’re back strong, and ready to go.”

Schaaff said that when the security breach first took place, the company thought “it was all about Sony, and what was Sony doing.” In the weeks following the attack, however, it became apparent that this wasn’t the case, as a number of other companies and government bodies also suffered at the hands of hackers.

Astonishingly, Schaaff described the whole episode as “a great experience.” That’s really saying something. We’re wondering what would’ve had to have happened for him to call it “pretty damn awful.”

Schaaff qualified his remark by saying, “I would not like to do it again. One time was enough. Great learning experience.”

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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