Sony CEO Howard Stinger Blogs His Apology, And Mentions The Earthquake

Dear Friends, I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. Sony (NYSE: SNE) CEO Howard Stringer who has been oddly absent since the huge hack of Sony’s PlayStation Network, penned a blog to his company’s customers.

The salutation was “Dear Friends”. The use of ‘friends” means that Stringer is hardly willing to take on the problem directly. Better to have said “Dear Customers” or Dear Victims”.

The first line in Stringer’s blog is “I know this has been a frustrating time for all of you.” He must have years of practice understating cases. Millions of Sony customers may have had personal data stolen. Stinger did do one brilliant thing. He announced that “A program for U.S. PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers that includes a $1 million identity theft insurance policy per user was launched earlier today and announcements for other regions will be coming soon.” That may help Sony customers financially, but it is not likely to regain their trust.

Stringer is not willing to admit to customers that once a system has been broken into, it can be broken into again. Stringer might have acknowledged that and said in some detail how Sony plans to combat a second hack. The hackers are still out there somewhere in cyberspace. They have not been identified, and may never be. Why not tell customer that they return to the PlayStation Network at some risk?  The reason is that Sony wants to stay profitable even if it poses some danger to its customers.

Stringer’s worst sin is that he used his blog post to play the sympathy card, a move which is cynical at its core. “In the last few months, Sony has faced a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan.” The earthquake did not cause the hacking incident. The suffering of Sony employees is completely unrelated to the PlayStation problem. Stringer might have had the decency not to mention the two issues in the same breath.

Douglas A. McIntyre