TOKYO/NEW YORK: Sony CEO Howard Stringer faced harsh criticism of his leadership after the consumer electronics conglomerate revealed hackers may have stolen the data of another 25 million accounts in a second massive security breach. Sony's latest revelation came just a day after it announced measures to avert another cyberattack like that which hit its PlayStation Network two weeks ago. The Japanese electronics company said its Sony Online Entertainment PC games network had been hacked on April 18, but did not find out about the breach until the early hours of Monday and shut down the service shortly afterwards. The breach may also have led to the theft of 10,700 direct debit records from customers in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain and 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers, it said. Investors said Sony and 69-year-old chief executive Stringer had botched the data security crisis, a further blow for the company which has struggled to match recent hit products from rivals including Nintendo , Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc . “The way Sony handled the whole thing goes to show that it lacks the ability to manage crises,” said Michael On, a fund manager at Beyond Asset Management in Taipei, who does not own Sony shares. “The current CEO should step down after the hacker problems and the company's failure to push out products that are competitive.” Welsh-born Stringer, a former TV producer who was knighted in 2000, has not commented on the security breach, leaving No.2 Kazuo Hirai to lead the news conference and apology on Sunday. Hirai headed the networks division and was seen as the likely successor to Stringer, who in March committed to stay in his role for the current year at least. Hirai may not escape the fiasco unscathed, said another fund manager, who sold Sony shares last year and was not authorised to talk publicly about the company. “The leadership of Sony is not in a good place right now, which could lead to Stringer stepping down and may sabotage Hirai's chances of succeeding as the CEO,” said the Taipei-based fund manager. The attack that Sony disclosed Monday took place a day before a massive break-in of its separate PlayStation video game network that led to the theft of data from 77 million user accounts. Sony revealed that attack last week.
