Sony closing all of its Canadian retail stores, 90 employees laid off

It was a bad news day for retail Canada with the announcement that Target would shut down Canadian operations. The bigger news for consumer technology watchers was that Sony would close down all 14 of its Canadian retail stores including the five flagship stores in Toronto.

Click to read more ...

Report claims U.S. officials believe North Korea hired foreign hackers to hack Sony

After Sony was hacked and its sensitive information have been dumped on the Internet, the FBI named North Korea as the culprit behind the hack. A new report from Reuters cites an official “close to the investigation” that says the U.S. officials believe North Korea hired foreign hackers from outside the country to hack Sony Pictures Entertainment. According to the source, North Korea doesn’t have the capability to “conduct some elements of the sophisticated campaign by itself.” While they maintain that North Korea is behind the “theft and destruction of data” of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the reports says the U.S. officials are investigating if North Korea really did contract hackers from outside its country.

Source: Reuters | Via: Ubergizmo

SourceCode: Year of hacks continues with PSN and Microsoft's Xbox Live compromised

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

After the massive celebrity photo leak, the Sony hack and now this, Internet services and systems suddenly feel less secure and more vulnerable than ever. The industry really needs to work together to change this perception.

2014 looks to be come one of the most infamous years in terms of high-profile hacks. We've had our share of massive outages and with a few days away from the New Year, a group of hackers called Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for service outages for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users during Christmas Day. 

Click to read more ...

FIFA bans Beats headphones from World Cup stadiums

While football players have been seen to use Beats headphones during their downtime, don’t expect to see them carry those cans on the field. FIFA has banned the use of Beats headphones at 2014 World Cup because of licensing reasons. Sony is one of the biggest sponsors of the games. Players will not be allowed to take their Beats headphones to the stadiums or when they attend media events for the games.

But this plan might be even more advantageous for Beats. Marketing strategist Ellen Petry Leanse told Reuters that the company’s message might come off as more authentic or credible because they aren’t an official sponsor.