Revelations that Sony has suffered a second cyber attack will significantly affect the brand and allow competitors to gain market share, according to brand experts.
Sony admitted today that another cyber-hacking has occurred, involving the theft of almost 25 million people's personal details from the Sony Online Entertainment PC games network. This took place a day before a recently reported hacking which saw 75 million sets of details stolen from Sony's PlayStation Network between 17 and 19 April. The second hacking was uncovered during a review of the first.
According to Marshall Ward, managing director of branding firm Blue Marlin, the second hacking will have much more significant repurcussions for the Sony brand than the first.
"This will move beyond customer frustration, and might see a great deal of Sony customers moving towards another competitor," he said. "Microsoft is driving a big campaign at the moment around its cloud technology, and if the brand is transparent and focuses on its security, it might be able to pull the rug out from underneath Sony. This second breach signals the perfect opportunity for competitors to take market share.
"The major positive for Sony is that it has admitted this second breach much more quickly than the first."
However, FutureBrand Australia managing director Erminio Putignano told AdNews that the Sony brand will be able to recover.
"This second round of hacking raises much larger questions about the security of online gaming in general. However, Sony is a very strong brand, which has strength well beyond the world of gaming. Plus, the world of online gaming is so fast moving - there are so many new products coming out all the time, so it is easy to change perceptions in just a couple of months."
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