We’re hearing more and more hacking reports these days of unknown groups attacking government websites or even their own supporters. But this new attack cuts deep into the heritage of world music. Apparently Sony disclosed information according to which Michael Jackson’s entire back catalog has been stolen by Internet hackers.
Sony Music has become again the target of illegal trespassing in a year, which left the label vulnerable to hackers finding a way in the system and from there downloading more than 50,000 music files that were worth about $253 million. That must be the biggest loss a music company has ever seen. Hackers are striving to make history, apparently! We have reasons to feel sorry for Sony, as these attacks comes after the company has paid $395 millions for the rights over Jackson’s songs following his demise.
This entitled Sony to release another 10 compilation albums and unreleased material. Before he died, for example, Jacko had recorded some pretty interesting duets with legends like Freddie Mercury and more recently with Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas. But Sony didn’t just stand by with its arms crossed doing nothing. The hackers have been already identified.
They are 26 year old James Marks from Daventry Northamptonshire, United Kingdom and James McCormick, 25 from Blackpool also from the United Kingdom. They have already appeared in court and criminal charges were filled against them but they denied everything. The official trial is expected to begin somewhere around January 2013 nevertheless.
Sony commented the incident:
“We confirmed the breach last May and immediately took steps to secure the site and notify authorities. As a result, the two suspects were arrested. There was no consumer data involved in the incident.”
Back in April, 77 million gamers account details were stolen after Sony’s PlayStation Network was hacked as well, making the company one of the unluckiest out there. The incident cost Sony about $168 million and stained the company reputation.
[ttjad]
