The breach involved the theft of 50,000 music files, including Jackson’s back catalogue, which Sony bought from Jackson’s estate for $393 million, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.
While the incident occurred last April, Sony did not disclose the breach because it did not involve customer data. It did notify the Jackson estate of the breach, however.
The hack was discovered during monitoring of social networking sites, Jackson fan sites, and hacking forums, according to the newspaper. Other artists’ work was also compromised, including Jimi Hendrix, Paul Simon, Olly Murs, Foo Fighters, and Avril Lavigne.
A Sony source told the newspaper that forensic experts had traced the hack to the UK by examining a fingerprint allegedly left behind by the hackers. The UK Serious Organised Crime division took up the case and two men appeared in court last week charged with offenses under the computer Misuse Act, the newspaper explained.