Sony Offers "Welcome Back" Incentives After PSN Outage

Yesterday, Sony held a press conference to discuss the recent PlayStation Network outage and the resulting security breach. In the conference, they stated that the PSN would be back up and running within the week and that it would offer a number of “welcome back” incentives as an apology.

Plans are currently in place to offer a number of yet-to-be-revealed free downloads in addition to 30-day free access to both PlayStation Plus and Qriocity, Sony’s on-demand streaming music, video, e-book and games service.

The downside to this news is that Sony still does not have a clear answer to the security of more than 10 million users’ credit card information. It was confirmed that 77 million users’ PSN data was compromised, but the estimated 10 million credit cards linked to PSN accounts may be leaked as well. Sony has said they “can’t rule out the possibility,” but have not yet received any reports of illicit card use.

On the subject of future security, Sony has plans to upgrade its safety measures by moving to a new physical data center, implementing new firewalls and hiring a new “Chief Security Officer.”

As for compensation for the security breach, Sony is “considering” covering the costs of replacement credit cards for affected users. Later, Sony Consumer Products CEO Kaz Hirai said, “If there are, in the days ahead, damages suffered by customers, they will be dealt with on a case-to-case basis.”

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