Former US official to head cybersecurity at Sony

Philip Reitinger, who worked at US software giant Microsoft before joining the US government, has been appointed Sony's chief information officer and a senior vice president, Sony said in a statement.

Reitinger will be Sony's top cybersecurity executive, responsible for information security, privacy and Internet safety, Sony said.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University and Yale University, Reitinger was named a deputy undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security in March 2009.

He resigned from that position in May.

Sony's PlayStation Network, Qriocity music streaming service and Sony Online Entertainment were targeted by hackers beginning in April in cyberattacks that resulted in one of the biggest data breaches since the advent of the Internet.

Over 100 million accounts were affected and Sony said it could not rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised. It has since restored its online services.

The cyberattacks threatened to cause deep damage to Sony's brand image and the company's efforts to link its gadgets to an online network of games, movies and music.

(c) 2011 AFP