By Daniel Ionescu, PCWorld
Mar 5, 2012 6:14 AM
Sony’s PlayStation Network major outage
last year was not the only damage done by hackers. Michael Jackson’s
entire back catalogue of more than 50,000 music files, worth some $250
million, was stolen as well, it has been revealed.
The hack was traced to the U.K., according to a report in British daily The Sun, and two men aged 25 and 26 appeared in court
last week in regard to the theft. Both men reportedly denied the
charges and were allowed bail. They were arrested last May and are due
to stand trial in January 2013.
In April 2011, hackers stole details of more than 77 million gamers on the Sony PlayStation Network, which led to lengthy downtime of the network and a serious dent in Sony’s reputation and pockets of around $165 million.
The attack on the Michel Jackson files happened shortly after the PSN
hack and outage, and this is the first time it has been reported. The
50,000 music files have an estimated worth of $250 million, after Sony
paid some $395 million for the seven-year rights to the songs following
Jackson’s death in 2009.
Sony’s
compromised materials include unreleased duets with artists such as the
late Freddie Mercury and Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am. The work of
other artists with Sony was affected as well, including Jimi Hendrix and
Avril Lavigne.
An unnamed source at Sony told the British paper that the Jackson
estate was told about the hack, but it wasn’t made public because there
was no customer data involved, unlike the PSN attack.
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