Kevin Mitnicks warning for Australia
Sony took seven days to inform its 77 million customers that its PlayStation Network had been hacked last year, exposing customer names, addresses, email address, birthdates, user names, passwords and more.
If you thought that was bad, then think again. Hacking performed in the 70s, 80s and early 90s on numerous US firms by one of the world's most infamous computer hackers, Kevin Mitnick, wasn't disclosed publicly by them - even though many knew of the breaches - until Mitnick wrote about the incidents in his tell-all book, Ghost in the Wires, published last year.
"The only reason that [companies in the US] come forward [now] is because the [US] laws now require it," Mitnick said in a telephone interview. When Mr Mitnick was told that Australia had no such mandatory data breach notification laws, he was stunned.