Sony Ericsson's website hacked in Canada

The company expounded Monday that info breaks will end in at least a $170 million hit in known costs to operating profit this finance year. "This is a continuing problem, and the scale of the damage is still unclear," Ryosuke Katsura, senior researcher at Mizuho Instruments , told AFP. "The market is expecting that Sony may want to pay compensation to influenced shoppers.

Concerns also linger that the dimensions of the damage could be bigger than now anticipated if they file suits against the company." Sony's share price dropped 1.49 % to 2,236 yen in Tokyo Wed. . Katsura added that "the continuing problem is predicted to put a drag on Sony between half a year and a year, but if the company takes it as a lesson and buttresss its systems, it might be rather positive for its expansion from 2013." The latest attack -- targeting the mobile phone partnership between Sony and Sweden's Ericsson -- was found on Tues. local time, and the influenced web site was closed down, a Sony spokesperson told AFP. "Sony Ericsson's web site in Canada, which publicizes its products, has been hacked, influencing two thousand people," he told AFP. "Their private info was posted on a domain called 'The Hacker News'. The info includes registered names, emails and encrypted passwords. But it doesn't include card information." The link to the Sony Ericsson eShop site featured a message that declared "D'oh! The page you are searching for has gone walkabout. Sorry." The series of breaks has damaged Sony's brand image and weakened its attempts to link its widgets to an internet "cloud-based" network of games, flicks and music that is dependent on client confidence in their security.

On Monday Sony asserted it predicted to post a $3.2 bill greenback net loss for the economic year ending March as it tries to get over the impact of the March eleven quake and tsunami, which despoiled production and damaged facilities.