Anonymous strikes again

[brunoafh]

whats the point? Are they just trying to break everything now for the sake of it?

Probably. I don't believe there ever was a point. Anyone who thinks these douchebags are doing this stuff because "Sony is evil" and they're "getting back at them" is completely deluded in my opinion. They're just a group of assholes and nothing more.

[MrEco]

You don't understand what a Hacker is and what a Cracker is. Hackers are the ones liberating the system from Sony's death grip to bring features Sony would never add themselves. Crackers are the ones breaking into Sony's servers themselves and stealing information. I do not believe for one minute that Anon was involved in the virtual heist, they're way too disorganised and amateurish. Sony are using them as a scapegoat because they're an easy target, in reality Sony have absolutely no idea who did it.

*gasp* You racist!

[Wombatula]

You don't understand what a Hacker is and what a Cracker is. Hackers are the ones liberating the system from Sony's death grip to bring features Sony would never add themselves. Crackers are the ones breaking into Sony's servers themselves and stealing information. I do not believe for one minute that Anon was involved in the virtual heist, they're way too disorganised and amateurish. Sony are using them as a scapegoat because they're an easy target, in reality Sony have absolutely no idea who did it.

Let me clarify. I do understand the difference between a hacker/cracker/script kiddie etc. I've been a network admin for over 7 years and know a thing or two about security and security risks. However it's a habit of mine to dumb down technical jargon due to having to explain these things to the most computer illiterate bosses I've ever encountered. True story: Boss called and said he's spent 30 minutes of trying to send a file through email, he gives up and says he's bringing me the file. I expect him to show up with a flash drive or cd or something. He shows up with a manilla envelope and says "Now how do I send this over email?" He literally thought the camera on the screen was a scanner.

So yes, I do recognize that hacking, or whatever term one wants to use, can be used for good and evil. So if you thought I was generalizing all hackers as asshole thieves or something, believe me, I'm not. Trust me, I love that people are out there pushing these machines to their limits, adding features to them, and generally increasing their capabilities in ways few could dream of.

Sorry if it felt like I was coming after you in that post. I'm just sick of people defending the attackers who performed this particular act as heroes, or as fighting for the little guy. Sorry but heroes don't steal millions of people's information and then sell it and threaten to release it publicly. I dislike Sony a great deal too, if a game is on another platform besides Sony, I buy that one. But what these guys did is far worse in my eyes than Sony's shitty customer service. Sure, Sony is partially to blame for their shitty security, but so are the attackers. I wish more people would look past their hatred of Sony, and realize that this is hurting us a lot more than it is Sony, instead of defending them and saying "That's what you get for shopping Sony".

I also believe that Anonymous as a group was not responsible. When have they ever NOT taken credit for something? However, after two of their own sites were attacked, from within it seems, it would not surprise me at all to find that the attackers are members of Anonymous performing an act of independent aggression. But who really knows? After reading about the security Sony had running, I have little doubt in them being intelligent enough to find out the real culprits.

[Wombatula]

whats the point? Are they just trying to break everything now for the sake of it?

Probably. I don't believe there ever was a point. Anyone who thinks these douchebags are doing this stuff because "Sony is evil" and they're "getting back at them" is completely deluded in my opinion. They're just a group of assholes and nothing more.

Agreed. Some people's hatred of Sony has made them blind to the fact that these guys don't give a shit about us or consumer rights. They are not some hacktivist trying to make a point. They're just a bunch of assholes who are trying to make a quick buck and have some "lulz", while hiding behind some fake concept of the greater good.

I've never known an ethical hacker to sell private info. If they really wanted to go after Sony, there are hundreds of other ways than this. I hate Sony too, but anyone who thinks this is all Sony's fault and that the attackers are either in the right or had no choice is either a troll, or some wannabe playing in his mom's basement talking on 4chan about how this is so lulz and he can't wait to use his l33t skillz to do something like this one day.

Oh well, I guess fanboys come in a forms.

[Ivo]

whats the point? Are they just trying to break everything now for the sake of it?

I think the reality of it is that they are trying to break whatever they can in order to profit from it. Even when they only get e-mail addresses they can sell the lists to spammers (or run spambots themselves) and that is when there isn't further information compromised.

Ivo.

[YoshiEgg25]

I also believe that Anonymous as a group was not responsible. When have they ever NOT taken credit for something?

They're the al-Qaeda of the internet.

[Bradtemple87]

HA classic

[Niode]

You don't understand what a Hacker is and what a Cracker is. Hackers are the ones liberating the system from Sony's death grip to bring features Sony would never add themselves. Crackers are the ones breaking into Sony's servers themselves and stealing information. I do not believe for one minute that Anon was involved in the virtual heist, they're way too disorganised and amateurish. Sony are using them as a scapegoat because they're an easy target, in reality Sony have absolutely no idea who did it.

Let me clarify. I do understand the difference between a hacker/cracker/script kiddie etc. I've been a network admin for over 7 years and know a thing or two about security and security risks. However it's a habit of mine to dumb down technical jargon due to having to explain these things to the most computer illiterate bosses I've ever encountered. True story: Boss called and said he's spent 30 minutes of trying to send a file through email, he gives up and says he's bringing me the file. I expect him to show up with a flash drive or cd or something. He shows up with a manilla envelope and says "Now how do I send this over email?" He literally thought the camera on the screen was a scanner.

So yes, I do recognize that hacking, or whatever term one wants to use, can be used for good and evil. So if you thought I was generalizing all hackers as asshole thieves or something, believe me, I'm not. Trust me, I love that people are out there pushing these machines to their limits, adding features to them, and generally increasing their capabilities in ways few could dream of.

Sorry if it felt like I was coming after you in that post. I'm just sick of people defending the attackers who performed this particular act as heroes, or as fighting for the little guy. Sorry but heroes don't steal millions of people's information and then sell it and threaten to release it publicly. I dislike Sony a great deal too, if a game is on another platform besides Sony, I buy that one. But what these guys did is far worse in my eyes than Sony's shitty customer service. Sure, Sony is partially to blame for their shitty security, but so are the attackers. I wish more people would look past their hatred of Sony, and realize that this is hurting us a lot more than it is Sony, instead of defending them and saying "That's what you get for shopping Sony".

I also believe that Anonymous as a group was not responsible. When have they ever NOT taken credit for something? However, after two of their own sites were attacked, from within it seems, it would not surprise me at all to find that the attackers are members of Anonymous performing an act of independent aggression. But who really knows? After reading about the security Sony had running, I have little doubt in them being intelligent enough to find out the real culprits.

We're on the same page here buddy. From your post it seemed like you thought that the hackers were doing it for the consumer which obviously isn't the case. A lot of people are confused right now because of Anonymous' involvement in the DDoS attacks earlier the previous month. Especially their statement that they are doing it for consumer rights (which I stated that I do not agree with, there were better ways of handling it). Sony aren't helping matters by practically blaming them. I honestly don't think they have the skill or the organisation to pull it off.

The 'security' that Sony were running is the worst thing for me. Amateurish, short sighted and above all, dumb. I can never trust Sony with my details ever again.

[Bradtemple87]

I was thinking earlier today that whats gonna stop them from just breaking PSN again once it gets back up and running.

[Niode]

I was thinking earlier today that whats gonna stop them from just breaking PSN again once it gets back up and running.

One would hope some actual security this time around. Not Arrogance-and-Apathy 2.0 (which was out of date and full of security holes, for the record).

I mean seriously, not patching known security flaws because they believed the PS3 was unhackable. Considering it was compromised over 6 months earlier. How ignorant can you get? Did they think they could just force an update and sweep it under the rug? The cat was looooooong out of the bag before custom firmware was even possible. Team Rebug were working on the debug firmware as soon as the first dongle hack surfaced. Sony are lazy and worst of all, arrogant. It's their own damn fault they got in this mess. If they had patched the holes when they knew about them instead of doing their usual trick of putting their fingers in their ears and going "la la la la I can't hear you" like they did with the YLOD then this whole thing could have been averted.