Sony forecasts a $3.1B loss for FY 2011 due to quake, PSN failure

[Jake Kouns <jkouns () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/sony-forecasts-a-31b-loss-for-fiscal-2011-due-to-quake-psn-failure.ars

Sony has released a revised forecast for the now-finished fiscal year,
noting that the company is expected to post a $3.1 billion loss,
instead of the $857 million in profits forecasted back in February.

"Based on information currently available to Sony, our currently known
costs associated with the unauthorized network access are estimated to
be approximately ¥14 billion ($171.4 million) the fiscal year ending
March 13, 2012," Sony explained on a slide describing its losses. This
does not include costs associated with lawsuits filed against the
company, as the outcome of that litigation is hard to estimate for
either side.

The company estimated a ¥17 billion ($208.1 million) loss of operating
income this year due to the recent earthquake, and Sony also described
"incremental" losses, such as repair of structures and loss of
inventory. "The impact of these expenses is approximately ¥11 billion
($134.7 million); however, Sony has insurance policies which cover
certain damages to fixed assets and inventories as well as the
associated restoration costs, which are expected to offset almost all
of these losses and expenses in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011,
as the recoveries from insurance claims are deemed probable."

The natural disaster's impact of operating income for the fiscal year
ending in 2012 is estimated to be a staggering ¥150 billion yen ($1.84
billion).

Sony admits that the situation could become worse if identify theft or
credit card fraud is detected. "So far, we have not received any
confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any
misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack," Sony stated, as
reported by Joystiq. "Those are key variables, and if that changes,
the costs could change."
_______________________________________________
Dataloss-discuss Mailing List (dataloss-discuss () datalossdb org)
Archived at http://seclists.org/dataloss/
Unsubscribe at http://datalossdb.org/mailing_list

Learn encryption strategies that manage risk and shore up compliance.
Download Article 1 of CREDANT Technologies' The Essentials Series:
Endpoint Data Encryption That Actually Works
http://credant.com/campaigns/realtime2/gap-LP1/