And the PSN Outage’s First Class-Action Lawsuit is Already Filed - 4/28/2011

All I can say is... wow. Great job Sony.

From; Kotaku

If the Great PlayStation Network Blackout is going to cost Sony $24 billion, as some estimate, you bet some hunk of that is going to be paid to lawyers, and already they are lining up. A California law firm today filed a lawsuit that seeks class action status, alleging Sony didn't follow industry practices to protect its 77 million PSN customers, who were harmed by "one of the largest data breaches in the history of the Internet."

The Novato, Calif.-based Rothken law firm brought the suit on behalf of plaintiff Kristopher Johns. The 22-page complaint (read it here, .pdf). It alleges Sony violated the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which is meant to protect credit card data, and didn't follow legal requirements to protect customer records.

Sony's early public statements concerning the outage, followed by the revelation of the security breach five days later, also constitute a failure to appropriately warn customers they were at risk.

No dollar figure is cited in the complaint, but it seeks the full range of damages - compensatory, statutory, and punitive. And lawyers' fees, too.

Class Action Lawsuit Brought Against Sony Over PSN Data Breach [Gamasutra]