Michael Jackson back catalogue stolen by hackers

Michael Jackson back catalogue stolen by hackers
Not music to Sony's ears

Sony has been hit by another hack, with Michael Jackson's entire back catalogue said to have been stolen from Sony Music – which, if confirmed, will be the biggest attack ever seen on the music industry.

Sony Music bought the back catalogue for a reported $250 million and there are said to be over 50,000 tracks in the catalogue – we are guessing this includes all different file sizes and formats, that or Michael Jackson was extraordinarily prolific – many of which were unreleased rarities.

Sony was victim to one of the biggest attacks on a corporation back in May last year, with the entire Playstation Network taken offline for a number of leaks because of the attacks.

Action Jackson

Speaking to the Sunday Times, an unnamed source said about the breach: "Everything Sony purchased from the Michael Jackson estate was compromised.

''It caused them to check their systems and they found the breach. There was a degree of sophistication. Sony identified the weakness and plugged the gap.''

According to court reports, two men from the UK appeared in court on Friday about the Jacko security breach both denying their charges under the Computer Misuse Act and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

It is not known if the tracks have reached piracy sites, but the haul is such a significant one that Sony will be hoping it can contain any leaks of the tracks.

Via the Guardian

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.