Credit: REUTERS/Yuya Shino Sony has put an estimate to the damage caused by the massive cyberattack against Sony Pictures Entertainment last year — US$35 million.While Sony said in an earnings report that the hack would cost $15 million “in investigation and remediation costs” for the quarter to Dec. 31, senior general manager Kazuhiko Takeda said Wednesday that the figure would be $35 million for the full fiscal year through March 31.“The figure primarily covers costs such as those associated with restoring our financial and IT systems,” a spokesman at Sony’s Tokyo headquarters said later via email.The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation held North Korea responsible for the attack, which came ahead of the planned release by Sony of a comedy movie about a plot to assassinate the country’s leader Kim Jong Un. While the numbers for Sony’s Pictures segment are provisional, the company said Wednesday the damages weighed on the operating profit for the segment, which will be ¥54 billion (US$460 million) for the year ending March 31, up from ¥51.6 billion a year earlier.“Sony believes that the impact of the cyberattack on its consolidated results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015 will not be material,” it said in the earnings report and updated forecasts for the year. Sony’s other results were a mixed bag. The blockbuster sales of Apple’s iPhone 6 boosted demand for Sony’s image sensors, which power the phone’s camera system. That, combined with demand for PlayStation 4 consoles, encouraged Sony to reduce the net loss it predicts for the year to March 31 to ¥170 billion from the ¥230 it predicted in October. But that’s still worse than the ¥128 billion loss it posted for its previous fiscal year, when it incurred huge costs from exiting its Vaio PC business.Sony said this week it would ramp up CMOS image sensor production capacity to about 80,000 wafers per month from the current 60,000 to meet smartphone demand.Even though fourth-quarter sales of its Xperia smartphones rose year on year, Sony said it would cut 2,100 jobs in its struggling mobile communications segment, which will post a net loss of ¥215 billion for its fiscal year to March 31.“In overall electronics excluding mobile, results are improving due partially to the impact of restructuring,” Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida told an investor briefing.Under the restructuring drive spearheaded by CEO Kazuo Hirai, Sony has been shedding business units. Aside from PCs, it quit e-readers last year and announced the sale of Sony Online Entertainment, known for making PC games, earlier this week.Tim Hornyak covers Japan and emerging technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Tim on Twitter at @robotopia. Related content feature 3 ways to fix old, unsafe code that lingers from open-source and legacy programs Code vulnerability is not only a risk of open-source code, with many legacy systems still in use — whether out of necessity or lack of visibility — the truth is that cybersecurity teams will inevitably need to address the problem. By Maria Korolov Nov 29, 2023 9 mins Security Practices Vulnerabilities Security news Amazon’s AWS Control Tower aims to help secure your data’s borders As digital compliance tasks and data sovereignty rules get ever more complicated, Amazon wants automation to help. By Jon Gold Nov 28, 2023 3 mins Regulation Cloud Security news North Korean hackers mix code from proven malware campaigns to avoid detection Threat actors are combining RustBucket loader with KandyKorn payload to effect an evasive and persistent RAT attack. By Shweta Sharma Nov 28, 2023 3 mins Malware feature How a digital design firm navigated its SOC 2 audit L+R's pursuit of SOC 2 certification was complicated by hardware inadequacies and its early adoption of AI, but a successful audit has provided security and business benefits. By Alex Levin Nov 28, 2023 11 mins Certifications Compliance Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe