HOW WAS I TO KNOW?

100 million people with Sony Online/Playstation accounts are probably asking themselves that question.

Yeah, how were they supposed to know? Could those 100 million users have known ahead of time their account information (name, address, password) would be stolen?

I think so.

Granted, not with absolute certainty – nor when. But they had a clue, and could have surmised that a train wreck was waiting to happen.

Remember the root kit Sony secretly installed a couple years ago on user’s PCs when they watched a Sony Entertainment DVD? That is telling about the mindset of the company: They are more focused on making another dollar than they are on the welfare of their customers. And that means elevated risks for the customer.

So, while no one could predict the hour that Sony Networks would be hacked nor that their network would be down for more than a month, it was almost a given that it would happen sometime. Sure, everyone makes mistakes. But attitudes greatly influence the frequency and severity of those ”mistakes.”

So what’s my point? It is this: When deciding whether or not to do business with a company, give considerable credence to how they view the customer.