Class Action Suit Claims Sony Was Negligent in PlayStation Hack

Well, that didn't take long. The ink has barely dried on the stories about Sony letting hackers break into an unencrypted database containing private information on 77 million credit cardholders and already a class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of those 77 million.

But wait. Didn't the U.S. Supreme Court just outlaw class actions? Well, yes, but only in cases where the contract requires consumers to submit to arbitration instead of joining a class action.

In this case, plaintiff Kristopher Johns is alleging that he and his 77 million colleagues are the victims of breach of warranty, negligent data security, privacy violation and failure to inform consumers in a timely manner of unauthorized third-party access to their credit card account and other private information.

The suit accuses Sony of failing to maintain adequate security by failing to maintain "a proper firewall and computer security system," failure to properly encrypt data, unauthorized storage and retention of data and violation of Payment Card Industry Data Standards.

The suit alleges that Johns and friends were further victimized by the disruption of the Sony PlayStation Network, rendering them unable to access the online games essential to their well-being.

Johns, of Birmingham, Ala., said he first purchased a Sony PlayStation3 iin 2009. He noticed earlier this month, sometime around April 17-18, that he had lost access to the PlayStation Network but did not then know of the security breach that had resulted in the theft of his credit card data.

The suit notes that Sony represents in its advertising that the PlayStation Network is "an exceptionally powerful and secure gaming system and online gaming network."

Sony went public with the security breach earlier this week, conceding that the hackers who broke into its system made off with an unusually complete set of data on its 77 million users, including name, full address, country, email, date of birth, login and password.

The company also said it "can't rule out" the possibility that the hackers also got credit card information.