07 September 2011, 10:19

US Homeland Security expert appointed as security head at Sony

After the recent massive hacker attacks, Sony is to receive some prominent help from the US. Philip Reitinger, a former high-ranking official at the US Department of Homeland Security, has been appointed as the firm's new IT security officer. Sony announced that he will be handling data protection and internet security throughout the group. Reitinger previously worked at Microsoft and at the US departments of defence and justice.

In April, Sony was the victim of a hacker attack, in which unknown parties obtained access to the data of more than 100 million customers. Even during recent weeks, hackers have continued to break into Sony web sites and networks despite all of the firm's efforts to fend off the attacks.

At the IFA trade show last week, Sony CEO Howard Stringer announced a new start for internet security. "Sony have been flooded, we’ve been flattened, we’ve been hacked, we’ve been singed", Stringer stated in Berlin, adding that "the summer of our discontent is behind us." Sony says it will be restructuring its services and putting them on a single global platform.

(ehe)

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