PSN hack "a great learning experience"

Update: Sony network president Tim Schaaff's unusual comments were taken out of context and posted piecemeal by GamesBeat - the host of the conference Schaaff was speaking at. PC Mag was in attendance and reported the fuller quotes of the session.

"We're back online, everything's live again around the world, and the amazing thing through all of this is that the customers have all come back, and network performance is better than ever, sales are better than ever, and we've been very, very pleasantly surprised by the experience. And we're in a place where we're really looking forward again to what's next, what's new, and how we can keep growing the network. It's a pretty crazy event that we went through but we survived, and we're back strong, and ready to go."

"It's dramatic but that the lesson we learned from this process is that there are some crazy things going on in the world right now, and in the beginning we were very concerned that we were the focal point for this attack, and it was all about Sony, and what was Sony doing."

"I think for people running network businesses, it's not just about improving your security, because I've never talked to a security expert who said, 'As long you do the following three things you'll be fine, because hackers won't get you... The question is how do you build your life so you're able to cope with those things?"

"It's been a great experience," Schaaff apparently concluded.

"A great experience?" asked VentureBeat executive editor Dylan Tweeney, chairing the chat.

"A great experience," Schaaff reiterated. "I would not like to do it again. One time was enough. Great learning experience."

Original story: Is-he-mad president of Sony's network entertainment Tim Schaaff has referred to the great PlayStation Network hack as "a really good time".

Schaaff believes it was more beneficial for Sony to deal with the fallout of the intrusion - placating and reassuring irate customers - than to prevent hackers ever getting in.

"Great experience, really good time," Schaaff said of the hack to GamesBeat.

"Though I wouldn't like to do it again.

"A determined hacker will get you," he added, "the question is how you build your life so you're able to cope with those things."

One such determined hacker broke into PlayStation Network in late April and stuffed 77 million accounts' worth of details - including people's credit card numbers - into a digital swag bag. Sony promptly whipped the service offline to cope with the fallout and beef up security, finally restoring PSN fully over a month later at the start of June.

Sony was criticised for storing sensitive data in text files without encryption. The company also came under fire for poor communication, after taking nine days to inform customers what was really going on.