Sony: 'Very small percentage' of PSN users canceling accounts

The past four days have been eventful ones for Sony. On Saturday, the the
company began restoring the PlayStation Network after it spent over three
weeks offline. Then, yesterday, the company outlined its "Welcome Back"
program, which will allow PlayStation 3 and PSP owners to download two free
games for each system (from a limited selection) once the PlayStation Store
comes back online.

Sony Corp. executive deputy president Kaz Hirai.

Today, two of Sony's top executives discussed the PSN security breach and
outage with the Wall Street Journal. Sony Corp. executive deputy president
Kaz Hirai said that in the days since the PSN and Sony Online Entertainment
servicers were partially restored, only a "very small percentage" have
called in to cancel their accounts. He did caution, however, that it was far
too early to make any major conclusions based on those results.

Hirai also talked up the PSN's improved security, saying "We have done
everything possible and reasonable to make sure that [the] system is secure
from attack." Therecently promoted executive's boss, Sony Corp. CEO Sir
Howard Stringer, also had high praise for Hirai, increasing the likelihood
of his succession to Sony's top spot.

"If anything happened in this period that was positive, Kaz demonstrated
coolness and leadership and reliability absent of disagreement and
dissidence that was very impressive," said Stringer. He also defended the
amount of time it took Hirai to bring the PSN back up online, saying Hirai's
knowledge of networks allowed him to bring it back "faster than anyone else
would."

However, Stringer cautioned that no system was 100 percent secure, and he
said keeping SOE and the PSN safe from hackers would be a "never-ending
process." "It's the beginning, unfortunately, or the shape of things to
come," said Mr. Stringer. "It's not a brave new world; it's a bad new
world."