An article in the Financial Times has stated that hacker group Anonymous is behind the PlayStation Network being down. The article pins blame on the PSN break-in on "an individual or handful of supporters of" Anonymous' OpSony, Anonymous' since called-off response to the lawsuit between Sony and hacker Geohot. In response to the article, Anonymous has issued a press release that questions the accuracy of FT.com.
According to the Financial Times' source, technical details on breaking into Sony's networks were floating around Anonymous chat rooms shortly prior to the attack, and “the hacker that did this was supporting OpSony’s movements." .
While Anonymous (or at someone claiming to speak for Anonymous) issued a press release questioning the accuracy of the FT.com story, the post contains what looks like a threat or warning:
"Outraged about the blatant coverup and shameful misdeeds, other internet hacker groups will apparently proceed with attacks [9] over Sony's mishandling of the matter. These reactions prove that requesting legislation to cover up corporate crimes and the abuse of law is frowned upon by all online communities, not just the Legion of Anonymous. Apparently Sony will have to learn the hard way that corporate malfeasance will not go unpunished. When the dust settles Sony may have more to fear from a massive class action lawsuit by their user base than the brief actions of the Global Hacker Nerd Brigade, Anonymous... Let THE GAMEs begin. :>"
The problem with talking about the involvement of Anonymous with anything, of course, is that their membership is entirely anonymous, so anyone can claim to be part of their group, and anything can be blamed on them. Hypothetically, if a guy who hangs around Anonymous chat rooms gleans some technical information that allows him to work his way into Sony's network and boost a bunch of credit card numbers, does this mean Anonymousis responsible for the crime? If you were a criminal interested in stealing personal data from a network in order to sell it, wouldn't it make sense that to hang around internet forums where exploiting security holes is discussed?
As the FT.com's hacker source puts it: “If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it... Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn’t mean Anonymous didn’t do it.”
Source: Financial Times
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ECW118
These damn hackers just need to turn thereself in. Justic will be serve and they will pay for messing wit Sony & the people own a PS3(incuding me).
tcs0
Anonymous better prey that Sony doesn't order the feds to raid their compound like the Navy Seals did to Osama's? I hear he was executed in that raid and not like what Fox News said.
Arkaya_Darkstar
Hell if they wanted to cost a company millions of damage just strike Microsoft. If they hacked Xbox live and shut it down for a month it would cost them a lot of money in damages. $10 a month per person, while PSN is free.
dizpenzerdown24
I recently heard that Anon was hacked by some of their own former members,so hopefully now we won't have to worry about them for a long time, and if threats start slowing down maybe sony will be able to fix PSN faster? i hope so.
TheBRADLeyB
Hey (sorry about the errors in spelling like 'no' which was suppose to be 'to' and adding in extra s's in places. My Keyboard is a little jacked up.
Anyway I was wondering has G4 e-mailed or talked with Developers/Publishers about the PSN Crisis and all this just to gage where BioWare/EA/2kCrapGames/Rocksta r/Valve and all the other industry leaders stand or how they are preparing/reacting for/to all of this?
shmaron
The thing about Anonymous that is bull crap, is that they come together to attack companies, and then claim to be separate when it suits them. Of course they'd deny it, because this time they screwed the pouch.
EKG
This old man once told me that the reason hackers and anonymous are so angry is because....well, let's just say that God did not gift them with a large...uhum. Ya know. Anyway, I heard that they were so upset over the fact that they couldn't please pillow, let alone a women, that they began meeting in chat rooms and complaining about it to everyone that would listen.
Eventually, a group formed around it called Anonymous. They weren't sure what to do with the group, but they finally settled on engineering large attacks against corporate giants. Why? Because nothing is bigger than taking down a corporate giant like Sony. And what better way to draw attention away from the fact that their manhood is about as impressive as dropping a bread stick through a basketball hoop then to spend their time taking down giant corporations like Sony?
And here we are today, a few years later. This group of small groined gentlemen (and one dude who sort of looks like a chick) spend their time ruining the lives of innocent people. I wouldn't know what it is like to be in their position, but if I was, I would imagine I would just jump off a bridge and give the world a break.
Gilby Martinez
Anon going on and on again about greedy corporations that's BS, if they really wanted greedy corps to answer for there "crimes" then how come Anon isn't going against ATT, or Microsoft, or even the US government or greedy oil companies? no they're stealing credit card #s from online gamers.
TheBRADLeyB
So now Anon is upset with FT and even more outraged by Sony?
What we have here is an Escalating War.
Sony goes after Hackers (GeoHot). Anon goes after Sony (Protection of GeoHot). Sony doesn't heed warnings, taken down, settles out of court with GeoHot. SOMEONE takes down PSN and takes CC information. Sony can't answer any questions and can't even remember what info is Encrypted and what info isn't. Sony blames Anon. Anon denies this. FT Blames Anon. Anon enraged by Sony and FT takes both down again.
Eventually what will happen is the FBI will try to step in and take control and find Anon Members and then we'll have a war between Anon and the FBI.
I mean if you are Sony or FT you have no know that upsetting Anon is NOT in your best interests.
I mean let's say Sony's Accusations are correct and Anon invaded Sony Servers and Took the Credit Card Information. This means that Anon ALREADY is going cost you anywhere from 1 Million to 36 Billion Dollars. I mean Sony is going to take a HUGE hit with all this. It also would mean that not only can/did Anon makes your security look like Child's Play but that they also have no qualms about destroying their own PSN Service (I assume a lot of Anon have PS3s as well as 360s).
So you already know Anon has the ability to severely jacked you up and that they quickly escalate things.
So why would you want to further make Anon mad? Additionally if you are FT (are they owned by Sony?) why would you want to declare Anon is responsible and put yourself in their Crosshairs?... I mean unless FT is trying to get attacked for the publicity I just don't understand it.
The longer this entire thing goes on the more I believe Anon and the more I distrust and dislike Sony.
Grant it I'm a 360 Lover but I never had Ill Will towards Sony. (I loved my PS2, I'm happy BluRay won out, I take no joy in PS3 players not being able to go online) but this entire event just stinks of Sony incompetence. It took Sony 5 or 6 days to finally say, "We were hacked. Hired outsiders to come in and figure out what's up. Private Information may or may not have been stolen" instead of saying from Day 1 (Wednesday night) "Hey! There's an intrusion, We shut down PSN to protect information. We are unsure if Private Information was the goal or accessed"
Then once we did find out that Private info and CC info may or may not have been hacked they apparently had no idea what information was encrypted and what wasn't. I mean if you built an Online System how do you not know what information your own system Encrypts and doesn't Encrypt?
Then SOE got hacked and there was something about information taken from outdated servers in San Diego.
Now it looks like Sony is trying to get all their friends on their side against Anon in an effort to use Anon as an escape goat and get public minds off Sony.
I mean I have to tell you, if Microsoft some how had the same thing happen to them and they responded the same way as Sony seems to be doing I don't think I'd be taking M$'s side because there is just too much garbage flying about here and it all seems to be flung from Sony's Side.
DutchSanta
I could really care less about if Sony has backroom dealings going on. Most companies do; it's a fact of life. I just want my PSN back, and I want whoever did it to pay dearly.
teac77
Sony might consider going the way of the Authenticator (ala Warcraft).
TheSlowFlash
"The problem with talking about the involvement of Anonymous with anything, of course, is that their membership is entirely anonymous, so anyone can claim to be part of their group, and anything can be blamed on them."
That is correct, monkey brain... That is why we are going to absolutely destroy that group. One IP address at a time...
Ghost2190
According to FT.com's ideology If I declared war on Canada that means that all of America is at war with Canada?
woody636
Psn suck. Sell it while you can. Regardless psn will forever be smaller than it was. Out of 5 or 6 I know had/have a ps3, only 2 still have there's. And are the Goin to start charging you psn users now? After this? And either lose costumers do to anger of paying a $50 yearly fee after all this. Or lose millions and millions more not charging to have a service with someone actually being payed to catch and fix these hacker issues. Be realistic, how do you really see this ending? With roses and cupcakes? How rich is sony anyway? Not rich enough to do the right thing I guess.
EndlessWaltz24
So... because they're annoyed that they're being blamed for an attack that they didn't do (although they did attack the PSN a couple weeks before this event) they're going to attack Sony and NOT the people who are screwing with Sony and using Anonymous' name...
Is it just me or does that not make a single bit of sense?
bmx484
i just wish they would tell us something because they have not said anything on playstation.com last i knew they were in the final stages of testing the internal network ....... but it seems like they don't even know what is going on!
Jackfirestorm
Stopped not stored
Jackfirestorm
There is a thin line here. When the system won't allow for the exposure of evil the natural thing to do is work outside the system. This is only the beginnings of a revolution. How that revolution is handled determines by both parties determines if it becomes a war. They are right but wrong in there approach. Think a Die Hard movie. All you care if about the outcome, not the fact that there are millions of dollars in property damage or that the building that the chopper crashed into more than likely had innocent people that were injured. That's how they are seeing this. They are John McClain and Sony are the bad guy terrorists that must be stored at all costs.
martymar82
Can't wait to pay Brink online tomorrow!
df29
or is it someone within the company and they want to point the finger at someone else they just pointed it at a group that can be as big or small as anonymous
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