Student accused of Sony Pictures hack pleads not guilty

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A man believed to be a member of LulzSec has pleaded not guilty to hacking the Sony Pictures website.

Sony was hacked numerous times earlier this year, with the Sony Pictures site hit in June with an SQL injection attack.

LulzSec took responsibility for compromising the site’s servers, accessing over one million customers’ details. The hacktivist group even published names, dates of birth, addresses, emails, phone numbers and passwords of thousands who had entered contests promoted by Sony.

Cody Kretsinger, a 23-year-old student, was arrested by the FBI towards the end of September. He pleaded not guilty to one count each of conspiracy and unauthorised impairment of a protected computer during a hearing at the US District Court in Los Angeles.

His trial is due to take place on 13 December and he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted, Reuters reported.

Prosecuters believe Kretsinger is the LulzSec member carrying the moniker of “recursion.”

Despite significant efforts from law enforcement to apprehend those responsible for hacking Sony, the company’s security woes have not dissipated.

The entertainment giant was forced to lock down 93,000 customer accounts after a huge set of compromised logins and passwords was tested on the vendor's gaming services.

Sony claimed it was likely the login and password details used to compromise accounts in this fresh attack came from non-Sony sources.

Read on for Davey Winder’s look at why all companies should learn from Sony’s security mistakes.

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