Sony to settle PlayStation Network class action suit for $15 million in goods and services

Sony has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought about by the 2011 PlayStation Network data breach, an event that resulted in the theft of names, addresses and potentially even credit card information belonging to 77 million members.

According to a report from Polygon, Sony has signed a preliminary agreement valued at $15 million. Instead of cash, however, plaintiffs would receive goods and services from Sony such as free PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable games, free themes, free subscriptions to PlayStation Plus, free subscriptions to the Music Unlimited service and free SOE Station cash (Sony's virtual currency to buy in-game items).

Those that didn't participate in Sony's "Welcome Back" package following the security breach will get to choose two separate benefit options or two instances of one PSN benefit option. Individuals that did accept Sony's package can receive a game benefit, a theme benefit or a PlayStation Plus subscription benefit.

Lawsuit participants will receive benefits on a first-come, first-serve basis. All of this, of course, is dependent on the judge signing the settlement.

Sony was hit with a couple of massive data breaches back in 2011 and has been working to clean up the mess ever since. The first breach in April forced Sony to shut down the PlayStation Network for several weeks.

The company hired a former Homeland Security officer to help get things in order after the breach but of course, the damage had already been done. At the time, Sony estimated it would cost $171 million to clean up the mess associated with the breach.

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Amazon reports steep loss after launching bevy of new products, services

Amazon on Thursday reported poorer-than-anticipated second quarter results. The online retail giant posted a loss of $126 million, or 27 cents per share - far greater than the 15 cents per share loss that analysts had forecasted.

In the year-ago period, Amazon posted a loss of just $7 million, or 2 cents per share. Revenue, however, rose 23 percent to $19.34 billion and was spot-on with expectations of $19.33 billion. That's up from $15.7 billion during the same period in 2013.

Amazon launched a number of new products and services this quarter which is the primary reason why losses were so steep.

As Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos outlined in the earnings report, his company recently introduced Sunday delivery to a quarter of the US population. They also launched European cross-border two-day delivery for Prime, launched Prime Music, created three original kids TV series, launched the Fire TV set-top box, launched the Fire smartphone and launched Kindle Unlimited.

He said they are continuing to work hard to make the Amazon customer experience better and better.

Despite all of that, however, investors weren't pleased with Amazon's results. Share value plummeted more than 10 percent on the news, losing more than $36 of its value.

Looking ahead, Amazon expects third quarter revenue between $19.7 billion and $21.5 billion while analysts anticipate revenue around $20.81 billion.

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Amazon reports steep loss after launching bevy of new products, services

Amazon on Thursday reported poorer-than-anticipated second quarter results. The online retail giant posted a loss of $126 million, or 27 cents per share - far greater than the 15 cents per share loss that analysts had forecasted.

In the year-ago period, Amazon posted a loss of just $7 million, or 2 cents per share. Revenue, however, rose 23 percent to $19.34 billion and was spot-on with expectations of $19.33 billion. That's up from $15.7 billion during the same period in 2013.

Amazon launched a number of new products and services this quarter which is the primary reason why losses were so steep.

As Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos outlined in the earnings report, his company recently introduced Sunday delivery to a quarter of the US population. They also launched European cross-border two-day delivery for Prime, launched Prime Music, created three original kids TV series, launched the Fire TV set-top box, launched the Fire smartphone and launched Kindle Unlimited.

He said they are continuing to work hard to make the Amazon customer experience better and better.

Despite all of that, however, investors weren't pleased with Amazon's results. Share value plummeted more than 10 percent on the news, losing more than $36 of its value.

Looking ahead, Amazon expects third quarter revenue between $19.7 billion and $21.5 billion while analysts anticipate revenue around $20.81 billion.

Next Microsoft explains quantum computing in this easy-to-follow videoPrev Jimmy Kimmel tells people this $20 Casio watch is Apple's new iWatch

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Sony to settle PlayStation Network class action suit for $15 million in goods and services

Sony has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought about by the 2011 PlayStation Network data breach, an event that resulted in the theft of names, addresses and potentially even credit card information belonging to 77 million members.

According to a report from Polygon, Sony has signed a preliminary agreement valued at $15 million. Instead of cash, however, plaintiffs would receive goods and services from Sony such as free PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable games, free themes, free subscriptions to PlayStation Plus, free subscriptions to the Music Unlimited service and free SOE Station cash (Sony's virtual currency to buy in-game items).

Those that didn't participate in Sony's "Welcome Back" package following the security breach will get to choose two separate benefit options or two instances of one PSN benefit option. Individuals that did accept Sony's package can receive a game benefit, a theme benefit or a PlayStation Plus subscription benefit.

Lawsuit participants will receive benefits on a first-come, first-serve basis. All of this, of course, is dependent on the judge signing the settlement.

Sony was hit with a couple of massive data breaches back in 2011 and has been working to clean up the mess ever since. The first breach in April forced Sony to shut down the PlayStation Network for several weeks.

The company hired a former Homeland Security officer to help get things in order after the breach but of course, the damage had already been done. At the time, Sony estimated it would cost $171 million to clean up the mess associated with the breach.

Next Google buys 3D graphics startup drawElements for north of $10MPrev AT&T's Q2 earnings report misses expectations despite rise in revenue$(function(){$('img', 'img-wrap', 'li', '.related-products .teaser-list').equalHeights();});

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Security expert details multiple undocumented services running on all iOS devices

During a recent hacker conference, forensic scientist and iPhone jailbreaking expert Jonathan Zdziarski outlined a number of undocumented high-value forensic services running on every iOS device. He also found suspicious design omissions in iOS that make data collection easier according to a report from ZDNet.

Zdziarski notes that while Apple has worked hard to make iOS devices reasonably secure against typical attackers, they've also put a lot of time and planning into making devices accessible on their end on behalf of law enforcement.

The hacker also found that screen-locking an iPhone doesn't encrypt its data. The only real way to do this is to shut down / power off the handset. What's more, some of the undocumented services are able to bypass backups and can be accessed using USB, Wi-Fi or perhaps even cellular.

Using commercially available forensics tools, for example, law enforcement could gain access to a device during a routine traffic stop or during an arrest before a suspect is able to power the phone off.

Zdziarski finds it suspicious that none of these services ("lockdownd," "pcapd" or "mobile.file_relay") are referenced in any Apple software. The data they collect is personal in nature thus unlikely to be used for debugging purposes and is stored in raw format to make it useless to wireless carriers or during a trip to a Genius Bar.

All said and done, Zdziarski is left with more questions than answers.

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Apple responds to 'backdoor' services in iOS, claims they are for troubleshooting technical issues

A number of news outlets (TechSpot included) ran a story yesterday in which security expert Jonathan Zdziarski claims to have found several backdoors in iOS that can be used by law enforcement and government agencies to potentially spy on citizens. The Cupertino-based company has since responded to the claims, essentially calling them hogwash.

In an e-mail to Financial Times journalist Tim Bradshaw, Apple doesn't deny the backdoors in iOS. Instead, they refer to them as diagnostic functions which are primarily used by IT departments, developers and Apple for troubleshooting technical issues.

"We have designed iOS so that its diagnostic functions do not compromise user privacy and security, but still provides needed information to enterprise IT departments, developers and Apple for troubleshooting technical issues. A user must have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer before that computer is able to access this limited diagnostic data. The user must agree to share this information, and data is never transferred without their consent.

As we have said before, Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products of services."

Zdziarski said he wasn't suggesting some grand conspiracy but there are certainly some services running in iOS that shouldn't be there which were intentionally added by Apple as part of the firmware. He said he simply wants the services off his phone as they don't belong there.

If Apple's explanation is indeed accurate, then it seems plausible that someone in an IT department or a developer with experience using the services in question will come forward to back up Apple's claims, no?

With Apple having released a statement on the matter, it's unlikely that the issue will escalate any higher and Zdziarski and others probably won't get the answers they're searching for.

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