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Hackers Nab Unreleased Michael Jackson Tracks From Sony

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-a-look-at-yourself-and-then-make-a-change dept.

wiredmikey writes "Sony once again has found itself in the news surrounding another hacking-related incident. This time around, the breach doesn't appear to involve any lost user data or customer accounts, but instead, some valuable property owned by the record company. Today, several British news outlets have reported that more than 50,000 music tracks have been illegally accessed and downloaded by hackers, including a large number from the late Michael Jackson. Sony bought the catalog from Jackson's estate for $250 million in 2010, giving the company distribution rights to the unreleased music. The attack reportedly occurred shortly after details of the massive PlayStation Network breach last April, but details were only revealed this past weekend."

13 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. why? by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not every system you have needs to be connected to the Internet. Why in the world was such valuable digital property on a system that had ANY connection to the Internet, thorough NAT or otherwise?

    I'm sorry... it just doesn't make sense. It's like all the talk of the vulnerable power grid... just don't put those items on the open internet. Or better yet... don't network them at all and have a human attend it in a secure place.

    1. Re:why? by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's fucking music tracks they were not releasing to cash in at a later point.

      This was going to be available at some point in the future, and it's better for society that it's available now. Locked up in a vault they had zero value.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    2. Re:why? by jesseck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with you that there security is beyond poor, but land-locking the entire system as a solution to me doesn't seem like the best course of action.

      I guess it depends on how valuable the item is- if RIAA were to be counting, what was stolen was trillions of dollars. A thumbdrive and a dedicated admin to administer the landlocked system is a fraction of the value in that case.

      Of course, in the real world, Sony knew the music was not worth trillions, and that is why it was connected to the Internet.

  2. Smooth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some smooth criminals!

    1. Re:Smooth by TheCarp · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sony are you ok? Are you ok Sony?

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  3. Including a large number from Michael Jackson by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 5, Funny

    including a large number from the late Michael Jackson

    And nothing of value was lost ...

    --
    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
  4. Where's the music? by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So where is this music? Why hasn't it spread far and wide over the net? I suspect the hackers are holding onto it in an attempt to blackmail Sony for a big chunk of cash.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  5. Bad by langelgjm · · Score: 5, Funny

    Really, really bad.

    --
    "Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
  6. In further news ... by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Reporter: "So you're saying that these are unreleased tracks that were made before Michael Jacksons' death?"
    Sony: "No, no - these are tracks from the LATE Michael Jackson!"
    Reporter: "You mean, this is stuff from AFTER he died?"
    Sony: "Exactly! This is music he created after death."
    Reporter: "That's didiculous! How can he write music if he's dead?"
    Sony: "He's de-composing, duh!"
    Sony: "It's all in the contract. When you sign with us, we really do own your soul!"

    --
    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
  7. Re:Good marketing by DarkOx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I certainly how those were the only copies and the hackers deleted them. If there is one thing Sony does not need its more money, and if there is one thing I don't want to have to suffer hearing on the play list of every pub, is more of that man's terrible music.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  8. Re:I wonder by ZeroSumHappiness · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. They can now just conflate crackers, hackers AND pirates and get even stricter laws into enforcement. This isn't a security problem on their end of course. This is because we're too soft on those dirty music downloaders.

  9. Truly baffling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok. So 50,000 tracks got downloaded.

    Let's say for sake of argument, and since this was from their digital archive according to news radio this morning, that each of these tracks were in format of uncompressed audio. Would they really keep tracks as AAC, MP3, or MPA in their digital archive? I'm gonna be generous here and say each track was 25MB. That's roughly, 125GB of data to be downloaded. That isn't something you do overnight. That's something that takes days if not weeks, and possibly a month. Massive net security failure here, or what?

    You have an obviously massive amount of money invested in that archive, and yet you don't protect it with approriate network security? I have to wonder how much their yearly network security expenditure was to protect that investment. $10,000? Clearly, they still haven't gotten the message that network security is important, even after the PSN lashing.

    As little as I want to sympathize with Sony and it's continual targetting by subverts of the net, I just can't. They're a multi-Billion dollar a year company who have been in business for DECADES! How are you still in business with blunders like this?!?!? How the hell can you go around dropping hundreds of Millions on music catalogues and not protect your investment?

    On a personal note, I wrote off Sony in 2000 when I bought my last TV whose components shorted at half their estimated life-time. I'm just truly baffled that a company this large, and with such massive influence and monies, can't take its online presence seriously.

  10. Tiny violins? by mindcandy · · Score: 5, Funny

    filetype:torrent "tiny violins"