Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction where Harvey Keitel’s character — the nicely-named Winston Wolf — comes in to help assassins Jules and Vincent tidy up an especially messy murder? “How come I’m on brain duty?!”
Well, it looks like Sony has called in the equivalent of three Winston Wolfs to begin cleaning up the security mess that exploded all over the PlayStation Network after that service suffered a massive breach two weeks ago.
As detailed by Reuters, the firms that will be investigating are Data Forte, Guidance Software, and Protiviti. Data Forte is run by one Peter Garza, formerly of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. (NCIS, yup, just like on TV.) Guidance Software licenses out EnCase digital forensic technology to heavyweights like the Department of Defense, Electronic Arts and General Electric. And among the cases cited by Data Forte on their site is a lovely little thriller of a case wherein they consulted for Mattel and helped prove that former Barbie employees gave critical design information — bust size, perhaps? — to the competing Bratz doll franchise. Corporate intrigue in the world of fashion dolls!
Reuters also notes that credit card companies MasterCard and Visa, along with the FBI, will be conducting their own inquiries into PSN-gate. This manhunt’s different than the recent GeoHot case, where the hacker and the reason for his work were well known — and even endorsed by some observers. When the parties responsible for the PSN breach are found, sympathy’s going to be in mighty short supply.