Anonymous not off the hook for the Sony PlayStation Network attack

[ChromeFoundry]

Source: NETWORKWORLD, by Tim Greene

The worldwide hacker group http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/042211-anonymous-playstation.html"> Anonymous may have played a role - even unwittingly - in the theft of personal data from 77 million Sony PlayStation Network customers, according to a letter from Sony's chairman to a Congressional committee.

Forensics teams have tracked the attack that netted the information to a file named "Anonymous" on an internal Sony server including the words "We are Legion", which is part of the hacker group's motto.

"Just weeks before, http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/040611-sony-anonymous.html"> several Sony companies had been the target of a large-scale, coordinated denial of service attack by the group called Anonymous," says Kazuo Hirai, Sony's chairman, in the letter.

<...>

"Whether those who participated in the denial of service attacks were conspirators or whether they were simply duped in to providing cover for a very clever thief, we may never know. In any case, those who participated in the denial of service attacks should understand that - whether they knew it or not - they were aiding in a well planned, well executed, large scale theft that left not only Sony a victim, but also Sony's many customers around the world."

Read more: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/050411-anonymous-sony-playstation.html?hpg1=bn

[inademv]

1. My only question is...

why would/did Anon target Sony? I'm somewhat skeptical of the report that they were behind the whole attack, doesn't really smack of their usual MO.

[ChromeFoundry]

2. Anonymous' previous beef with Sony...

It's all in response to Sony suing two owners of PlayStation 3s who developed and released code that allows third-party software as wells as the Linux operating system to run on the platform. Sony says it violates licensing agreements that come along with buying a PS3.

Anonymous regards it as censorship about how Sony products work. "Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing," according to a posting on the anonnews.org Web site announcing its OpSony, part of its ongoing Operation Payback that has targeted many different entities.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/040611-sony-anonymous.html "> More...

Of course this does not mean that they played a part in the current data theft attack. More probable, the criminals involved left the message to distract from their objective.

[Blue_Tires]

6. I still think they were involved, but would never admit it

because of the ongoing court case, and the risk of pissing off the gamer community...

[ChromeFoundry]

7. Anonymous' MO is to disrupt service...

The Sony site had data stolen from it while in operation. The service was never disrupted by the hacker(s)... Sony took the servers offline to analyze the intrusion and data breach with an outside consultancy.

I'd like to understand why you feel Anonymous was involved? This would certainly not help a legal battle on either side. Did I miss some logic to your claim, or is this just your gut feeling with nothing to back it up?

[Blue_Tires]

8. just a hunch...i'm no net detective...

By their own admission, they said there would be some kind of retaliation, and the timing of the attack was to hurt Sony at the worst possible time (weekend of the Portal 2 release)

Lost sales on the PSN + customer anger over loss of service and personal info + Incurred costs of rebuilding network + Embarassing PR hit is the grand slam....

[ChromeFoundry]

10. The stolen CC data has already been put up for sale

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/hackers-claim-to-have-playstation-users-card-data/

Doesn't really fit.

[inademv]

9. Did Sony ever get away with suing the jailbreakers?

I can't imagine any court actually ruling in their favor over the use of a personally owned electronic device.

[ChromeFoundry]

12. Closed door settlement...

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/16198-sony-geohot-reach-settlement-in-ps3-jailbreaking-suit/

[quakerboy]

14. Indeed

I could see an argument for not allowing jailbroken units to connect to the PS network, but there is no agreement signed at the time you buy a gaming console, to the best of my knowledge, so how can they limit what you can do with your own unit.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. Anon said it was the equivalent of being forced to use internet explorer

to surf internet when you preferred to use Firefox or Chrome, for example.

[NoodleyAppendage]

3. Or, the Sony hack was perpetrated to discredit Anonymous with the fanboys techies.

I seem to remember a certain Powerpoint slide set that mentioned discrediting enemies in the eyes of their general fan base or followers.

J

[ChromeFoundry]

5. Or, Sony is giving false info...

to reduce fault from being placed on them for having unsecured systems. :shrug:

We will never know... Criminals cannot be trusted. Corporations cannot be trusted.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Downwinder]

11. I heard that it was the CIA getting a fix on OBL.

[inademv]

15. Okay, having read the stories on Sony suing the jailbreakers

I stand on the side of Anon if they were indeed behind the attack and/or DDoS. Fuck Sony for trying to overreach the way they did.

[starroute]

16. Anonymous has a new press release out denying it yet again

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/a96ccs

About #Sony & #PSN stuff, we didn't do it as we will never hurt the innocent (public) in anyway and we haven't done so with any of our operations till date.

Let it be know that Anonymous Operations : Operation Payback is not responsible for the data breach of Sony and their servers.

@TheHackersNews has the evidence that the hacker who is responsible for the hack is not affiliated with Anonymous : AnonOps and is not from our IRC. He is from another place/server (IRC) and he carried out the attack independently.

As we all know anyone can be anonymous, he claimed to be anonymous and carried out his business in the name of anonymous. So since he did it without our knowledge, we couldn't do anything about it.

We hope this clear things up.

[OhioChick]

18. I didn't think it was Anonymous to begin with....

They don't steal CC/banking info.

Sony is looking for a scapegoat to cover their own asses.

[Imajika]

17. What's hilarious is that most people...

...posting on political forums like this have no clue what "anonymous" is.

Anonymous is not some super duper hacker group with some ideological agenda. Anyone can be anonymous, anyone can disrupt/hack anything and claim to be anonymous. It's just a collection of mostly 4chan kids/techies causing trouble for the lolz. Again, they are doing it for laughs. That people think they are hero's or follow a real agenda is absolutely ridiculous.

[Nihil]

19. As are the people ...

... who claim that CC/account detail hacks are just done "for the lolz" ...

Your point about anonymous/4chan vs "super duper hacker group" is valid.

Your assumption that Sony was hacked "for laughs" isn't.