Anonymous Denies Responsibility For PSN Outage -- "Our Leadership Does Not Condone Credit Card Theft"

Anonymous, the hacker initiative, is fighting back by denying responsiblity for the PlayStation Network outage after Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai hinted the group may be behind the PSN's massive security breach. Hirai addressed the U.S. House Of Representatives on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing PSN hack and threat on American data theft.

In a letter that was released to the public, Hirai mentioned that a file had been planted in the PSN containing the words "We Are Legion" which is part of Anonymous' slogan. 

• DETAILS: Did Anonymous Take Down The PlayStation Network?

Anonymous previously released a statement saying "For Once We Didn't Do It" on April 22 after people started to suspect their involvment in the PSN outage. Now, they're once again denying they had anything to do with the PSN Outage. In a statement, Anonymous raises a handful of points:

• Anonymous has never been known to engage in credit card theft
• Many of the people Anonymous has worked against in the past has been known to have lied to the public about them. "There is no corporation in existence that will choose the truth when lies are more conveninent."
• Anonymous allows reporters in to their operating channels to see their work.
• Whoever did perform the credit card theft on the PSN did so contrary to Anonymous' beliefs and intentions.

The statement goes in to great detail around the reasons that Anonymous isn't responsible for the PSN security breach and makes it perfectly clear, saying, "If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card [data theft] is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our "leadership" does not condone credit card theft. To see the full statement read after the break. 

• NEWS: Sony Responds To The U.S. House of Representatives -- Anonymous Possibly Involved

Last month, an unknown party managed to break into Sony's servers and acquired millions of customer records including credit card numbers. Insomuch as that this incident occurred in the midst of Anonymous' OpSony, by which participants engaged in several of our standard information war procedures against the corporation and its executives, Sony and other parties have come to blame Anonymous for the heist. Today, in a letter directed to members of Congress involved in an inquiry into the situation, Sony claimed to have discovered a file on its servers, presumably left by the thieves in question, entitled "Anonymous" and containing a fragment of our slogan, "We are Legion". In response, we would like to raise the following points:

1. Anonymous has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft.

2. Many of our corporate and governmental adversaries, on the other hand, have been known to have lied to the public about Anonymous and about their own activities. HBGary, for instance, was caught lying a number of times to the press, to the public, and to Anonymous itself (in this phone call, for instance), CEO Aaron Barr makes a number of untrue statements regarding the intent of his "research", claiming for instance that he never tried to sell the information to the FBI when emails acquired soon showed that he had been set to do just that; executive Karen Burke was also caught lying to Bloomberg about having not seen an incriminating email that she had in fact replied to just a few days before]. The US Chamber of Commerce lied about not having seen the criminal proposal created by them for Team Themis; Palantir lied about not having any idea what their employees were up to; Berico publicly denounced a plan that they had actively engaged in creating; etc. There is no corporation in existence will choose the truth when lies are more convenient.

• NEWS: PSN Outage: Sony Subpoenaed By New York State?

3. To the contrary, Anonymous is an ironically transparent movement that allows reporters in to our operating channels to observe us at work and which has been extraordinarily candid with the press when commenting on our own activities, which is why reporters prefer no talk to us for truthful accounts of the situation rather than fallacious public relations departments of our targets.

4. In the realm of criminal investigation, there is an important aspect of investigations that should never be overlooked. The "modus operandi" of a criminal rarely changes. Whoever did perform the credit card theft did so contrary to the "modus operandi" and intentions of Anonymous. Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities, we are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards.

5. It should be remembered that several federal contractors such as HBGary and Palantir have been caught planning a variety of unethical and potentially criminal conspiracies by which to discredit the enemies of their clients. This is not a theory - this is a fact that has been reported at great length by dozens of journalists with major publications. Insomuch as that our enemies have either engaged in or planned to engage in false flag efforts, it should not be surprising that mangy of the journalists who have covered us, who know who we are and what motives us - and who have alternatively seen the monstrous behavior of those large and "respectable" firms that are all too happy to throw aside common decency at the behest of such clients as Bank of America and the US Chamber of Commerce - also have their suspicious that some capable party performed this operation as a means by which to do great damage to Anonymous in the public eye. Those who consider such a prospect to be somehow unlikely are advised to read about what was proposed by Team Themis in their efforts to destroy Wikileaks, and should otherwise take a few minutes to learn about COINTELPRO and other admitted practices by the US intelligence community. The fact is that Anonymous has brought a great deal of discomfort to powerful entities such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, and much of the federal government; the Justice Department in particular is likely happy that our efforts revealed that it was they themselves who recommended the now-discredited "law firm" Hunton & Williams to Bank of America in order that the latter might better be able to fight back against Wikileaks. Al of this is now public record, and those or other entities may have again engaged in unsavory tactics that they are known to have engaged in in the past.

• NEWS: Sony Being Sued For $1 Billion Over PSN Data Theft

If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our "leadership" does not condone credit card theft. We are concerned with erosion of privacy and fair use, the spread of corporate feudalism, the abuse of power and the justifications of executives and leaders who believe themselves immune personally and financially for the actions they undertake in the name of corporations and public office.

Anunymous will continue its work in support of transparency and individual liberty; our adversaries will continue their work in support of secrecy and control. The FBI will continue to investigate us for crimes of civil disobedience while continuing to ignore the crimes planned by major corporations which use their services.

• NEWS: Sony Online Entertainment Confirms Attack -- Nearly 13,000 Credit Card Numbers May Have Been Obtained

We do not forgive, even if others forgive our enemies for those things for which we are attacked.
We do not forget, even if others fail to remember.
We are legion, and will remain so no matter how many of our participants are raided by armed agents of a broken system.
We are Anonymous.
Expect us.

So now what? Sony is hinting the blame may rest on Anonymous, but Anonymous raises fair and valid points in their statement as well. What do you think about Anonymous' statement regarding Sony's allegations? Is Sony trying to accuse Anon or did they simply find a mysterious file?

Source: The Guardian

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