Nope, legally Sony is responsible for handling PSN user's data. Those whos data was comprimized very well could sue Sony. Sony in turn, can go after the hackers.

lol, what? Another quality post by S.T.A.G.E.!

So...Here's what I got out of this.

1. Homeland security now heads up the U.S.A. console hacking defence force.

2. PSN offline is not "up to Sony alone" which means that even though Sony's security was subpar, others must share the blame for Sony's shortcomings.

3. If the hackers don't get jobs, they are screwed...but if they do, they get off the hook scott free!

4. Apparently the hacking cost Sony 24 Billion dollars.

5. Somebody, in this decrepid fanboy war of a thread, apparently said something about the hackers getting a job with Sony, even though Sony doesn't know who the hackers were.

Good stuff guyz!!!

Okay!  so, if  a bank has a vault with 14 inch thick steel walls, and is considered impenetrable, does that mean that if the best bank robbers in the world are able to crack it, that means it's poor defense? 

sony had by far the best and most durable security of any of the three systems, it took hackers BY FAR the longest to hack a sony console, and when Sony saw a flaw in the security, they did the smart thing and negated it...which is what instigated the hackers to hack. 

How in the world is this sony's fault?  This is not Sony just accidentally giving away people's details, this isn't them posting it on the internet for all to see, this is them keeping it encrypted on their servers and having a group which is known to be some of the best in the world taking ages to finally hack into the system...This is the hackers 100%.  People being mad at Sony is just Anti-PR...for some reason people just want a reason to hate on sony and it's been like that since the PS3 came out.  

It's totally unfair and frankly ignorant. 

Console hackability and network hackability are two very different things, Sony may have had a massive vault, but the skylight in the vault was left open.

Well RROD ended about three years ago although some users on this site don't want to admit that.  But It was a huge financial burden to MS.  However MS was able to handle the situation well by fixing consoles for free and extending warranties.  This in the end gave MS a positive reputation to their customer service. 

Meanwhile the financial damage done to Sony is still unknown.  In the end the PSN failure and theft of information could be more expensive than the RROD, and because sony has handled the situation so poorly in the PR department their reputation is taking a greater hit than MS.

I think in the end neither company will be remembered for these problems in the mainstream.  But in the gaming community Sony will take the bigger PR hit.

RRoD is much much worse. 

What....the. Dude, I kinda stated the obvious in relation to the fates of the hackers.....it's a either they get jobs or they go to jail for a very....very...long time. I've spoken to friends about this who either know hackers or are some form of hacker and it's either IF the hackers are caught they are given jobs for security purposes or they'll go to jail. These are the usual two arguments that have been bouncing around for a week now since I've been talking about it. The part with the possible costs of 24 billion to Sony is like two weeks old dude and its not only the US getting involved.(http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3436 /Homeland_Security_Department_Helping_Investigate_PSN_Data_Breach.php.)

I don't get what is so far fetched about this.

RROD never ended three years ago. The warranty was put into place after a couple years of denial from Microsoft. RROD still plagues gamers and if you know about the store Play N Trade they'll tell ya. Play N Trade is like Gamestop and are all over the US, but unlike Gamestop you can play your games in-store and have them fix your consoles. 360's piled up to the heavens back then and still do today. Thank goodness for the new slims.

you first point (the only one I was courageous enough to read) is a good one... RROD hit a portion of the communoty, PSN hits 100% and hits devs too (sales).

Moreover, the argument that one can just play the 360 tills it comes back up is the same that someone can just play the PS3 while RROD is repaired, so it's neutral.

I do believe that a service outage of this magnitude will be more harmfull in the long run than the RROD was. I mean RROD is an accepted fact, you send in the console and get one back in a matter of 2 weeks. Here you lost the service, were not informed, were told it'd be back, it's not back, you learn your credit card info is with the Hackers.... overall this is starting to be a pretty big hindrance for everyone. Now sure some people are not affected as they play single player and all, but let's face it, the active game buying community is the one on PSN, the one that has friend lists, the one that enjoys an online game to releave the stress.

Financially, this could have a larger cost for sony, as their gaming brand was worth a lot more than Microsoft's at the time of both "scandals", and future repercutions will potentially be worse... MS took a net cost hit by extanding warranty significantly, Sony... is offering a free month of service... so not a cost, but also not something that has the same significance to the customer.

RROD does not plague gamers anymore and they don't pile up.  Like I said some members on this site will never admit that the RROD is gone.