Recently, Sony endured an attack on their PSN network and saw data from 75 million accounts. While this, and subsequent attacks on various Sony sites from around the world, might look like something that results in brand damage, several analysts don’t see it quite so dire.

“There’s definitely chatter about the hackings, but it’s not huge,” said Lisa Joy Rosner, chief marketing officer at NetBase. “It’s not devastating.”

Several other companies, like Google, Epsilon Data Management and Lockheed Martin have also suffered hacking attempts. “The reality is companies are under attack,” said Andrew Szabo, founder and principal of Marketing Symphony. “If Sony had been the only one hacked into, the impact on the brand would have been much greater. Unfortunately, they’re in good company.”

“I would expect in the short term that trust perceptions could erode and sales might suffer,” said Ann Green, a partner in the client solutions group at Millward Brown. “Overall, it’s a very strong brand, but other gaming consoles such as Wii and Xbox 360 are well placed as trusted brands. It will be key for Sony to manage their communication well, clearly establishing and addressing the facts in order to regain strength.”

While some people criticized Sony for being slow to reveal the nature of the attack, others believe their taking of responsibility have been laudable and their attempts with a ‘Welcome Back’ program have been successful. “Hate the people who hacked the PlayStation network and got it shut down for over a month, but because of them I got two free games so I’m pretty happy,” wrote a Facebook user.

The problem going forward is preventing this sort of attack in the future. “They have a lot of properties to protect,” said Steve Orrin, director of security solutions at Intel Corp. “They’re trying to prevent all possible attacks, but the attackers only need to find one hole.”

Source: AdAge {link no longer active}