Ben-DutkaEver since last year's hack, everyone has been antsy concerning the PlayStation Network's security.
Sadly, Sony may never completely push past that lingering suspicion but for the record, the PSN has not been hacked again.
It started with a Tweet from hacking group Anonymous, claiming that it had breached the PSN, possibly compromising up to 10 million user accounts. Unsurprisingly, this created Internet-wide concern. However, Sony business development employee Shane Bettenhausen was quick to post up a retort Tweet, saying the claim was "totally fake." Not long after, a Sony representative confirmed to GameSpot that in fact, the sky isn't falling:
"We’ve confirmed that the recent claim that PlayStation Network was illegally hacked and that customer passwords and email addresses were accessed is completely false."
In truth, nobody is really safe in cyberspace, so we should always be a little on edge. At least for now, though, the Network is just fine and none of your personal information is at risk, so breathe easy.
Why? What was the purpose of hacking it this time, if it is true or false? Someone within Anonymous was unhappy with the Instant Game Collection?
Criminals don't make statements. They just whine.
Anonymous must be bored. May I suggest hacking the Syrian government regime and sending all data to wikileaks?
That might be useful, but Anonymous is full or Emo geeks who haven't got sufficient maturity to use their 'skills' for good, and would rather whine and bitch about Sony and annoy millions of gamers instead of doing anything to affect real, meaningful change.
I wouldn't HATE hackers with a passion if they actually had the mindset of some of the protesters of say the 60s and 70s, but a great amount of the hackers today just have no balls! And rather then try to do something to help the world they enjoy pissing off consumers. I would love to see them actually get treated like real criminals rather then the utter lack of punishment they receive now. However I would change my mind if they started using there talents for improving the world.
Well, just to contribute to nuances here:
Anonymous has in fact outed several hackers whose actions they disagree with. For instance the guy who hacked a humanitarian organization to make an impression on them.
They found out his real identity, and delivered their data to the police.
Here in Norway they have also assisted the Police on occasions, and it was due to Anonymous members in Norway that the Police so fast got the real identity and proof of activity of a guy that was the reason for a lot of DDOS attacks on major sites here.
Agree or disagree with their opinions or actions, but it's not just random attacks "for the heck of it" done with no real motivation or intentions. They themselves believe they contribute to the world – just like they thought in the 60s and 70s.
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/16/2012 7:47:21 AM
@ Beamboom
It may be true that hackers do occasionally screw each other over. And that's fine and may even be enjoyable to witness. But even so hackers are still more trouble than they're worth.
No matter which way you cut it, hackers are dangerous people. And as such they shouldn't be glorified in any way to any extent.
You are right, they should not be glorified but neither should they be demonized. Civil unrest is not *always* a bad thing, and who's "good" or "bad" is always – *always* – a matter of perspective.
Just to add a counter-point, and not saying I think hackers are good or evil, but, it was due to "hackers" from Anonymous that there have been a number of child pornographers caught and brought to justice.
When actions like these are taken and people such as this are brought to justice, that is something that I can get behind.
Conversely, when they intrude into secure systems and steal random peoples' data to "make a point" because a company has done something that they don't agree with, that's something that I find condemnable.
You always have to individual actions in the correct context.
Is it wrong to intrude into personal computers to expose a paedophile? The intrusion may be wrong, but the end result isn't.
TL;DR: sometimes they do good things.
@ Beamboom
I partially disagree (respectfully of course). Civil unrest and hacking might sometimes go hand in hand (let me emphasize might). However the two are by no means one and the same. People who participate in civil unrest are not inherently dangerous but hackers are and even if they sometimes do good and worthwhile things that doesn't make them any less dangerous. And because hackers are inherently dangerous people demonization is not inappropriate.
Last edited by Looking Glass on 8/16/2012 9:53:13 AM
On a philosophical level any man is inherently dangerous. Few persons are more dangerous than politicians and opinion leaders.
"Hacking" is a term that, at least for me, is very vague. What is it?
To protest and act against the establishment and corporate powers is really nothing new. It's part of a youth culture, it's a healthy sign in my opinion. It should be there, or something is wrong.
Too bad they attacked the corporation that we happen to be faithful worshipers of. Boohoo. But what were the consequences, really? A month without online gaming and a corporation that is now much better prepared for real criminals with much worse intentions. Poor us…!
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/16/2012 10:44:56 AM
@ Beamboom
I'm not talking about philosophy. I'm talking about from a practical standpoint and a more precise and realistic sense. Hackers are inherently dangerous because of the very nature of what they do, or what makes them hackers. And the fact that there are other dangerous people in the world doesn't change that. And protesting and acting against stuff is all well and good but the same is not true for every form this kind of thing can take and every method that can be used. There are much better and more respectable ways to protest and speak out against something.
Last edited by Looking Glass on 8/16/2012 12:36:39 PM
You are speaking like a true member of the establishment now, good sire. "There are more respectable ways of protesting"… Hehe!
The world need rebels. 😉
And – again – what did we suffer, really. It could have been much, much worse had criminals gotten to PSN first. We were lucky.
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/16/2012 2:12:10 PM
@ Beamboom
They did get on to PSN. Those hackers were criminals. Hence them being tracked down and arrested.
So you are unable to see what would have happened if criminals were breaking into the network, then. You think this is the worst case scenario.
Oh well. I guess that's why we still need rebels. 😉
I'm pulling your leg now, LG, in all friendliness. But seriously, there is a major difference between being of annoyance like they were and robbing your entire house, like criminals would have done were they given the chance.
Protesters are often arrested too.
@ Beamboom
They did rob the place. They stole customer information and a lot of it. They just didn't publicize it or do anything major with it like that as far as I know (at least one of them claimed to have deleted it). But if you remember after their first two attacks against Sony's networks it was revealed that they were actually planning a third one. And this time they were planning to publicize the customer info they stole. But fortunately that plan of theirs was thwarted when Sony shut down and worked on the server they claimed to have had access to. And besides the simple act of stealing that info was horrible enough in and of itself.
Those people weren't protesters. They were outright criminals and they deserved what they got many many times over.
Last edited by Looking Glass on 8/16/2012 3:13:53 PM
No no the difference is apparent in what you write yourself! There is a difference between to *could* do something but didn't, and actually do it.
This is like if I made a fake key to the door of your house, entered your house and took some snapshots inside to show you I did it, and made a few phonecalls with your phone to brag about it. I never took any money, never stole your TV and stereo. I *could*, but I didn't. All I wanted to do is humiliate you.
Would I have been a criminal? Sure, I'm pretty certain it would have been illegal to make that fake key and enter someone elses home. Still, there is a huuuuuge difference between that, and if someone went to your house while you were on vacation, completely emptied your house and left without a trace.
*Surely* you must see the difference.
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/17/2012 4:31:52 AM
@ Beamboom
None of that has anything to do with the PSN attacks that happened over a year ago.
I changed my password for nothing.
It's never stupid to change your password now and then. 🙂
your personal info is NEVER safe!
exactly why i always put up fake info just in case, better to be safe than sorry.
especially after when PSN got hacked last time and i had several PSN games charged to my card, so my bank canceled them and $ony blocked my account for it.
typical $ony, someone commits CC fraud so they send them a thank you note and punish the victim!
It may not be a coincidence that Anonymous tried to pull this crap after Sony had a strong showing at Gamescom. In other words they may be trying to rain on Sony's parade.
Of course a false claim isn't going to do much damage, if any at all. It wouldn't be all that surprising if Anonymous did try to hack the PSN again but ended up having too much trouble with Sony's new security measures and instead settled for crying wolf.
On a related note the PSN outage didn't do nearly as much damage to Sony as the Sony haters would like to think. Sony has been having major problems as of late but for unrelated reasons (tax issues, natural disasters, the global recession etc)
Last edited by Looking Glass on 8/16/2012 8:45:27 AM
I agree, I don't think the PSN outage did any damage at all! My clear impression is that it's water under the bridge by now among the vast, vast majority of users.
That a network is being hacked is almost the rule these days. The main complaint I have about that whole PSN outage thing is that it took them *that* long to get back up again. That was ugly.
The rest is history.
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/16/2012 8:59:37 AM
One thing that I would really like for people and the media in general to recognize is that Sony responded extremely quickly to the PSN hack. I know that the common wisdom is that they took too long, but if you look at all the major hacks in the last decade, the vast majority of them were not disclosed to anyone until several weeks had passed. Sony responded publicly within 48 hours, and then within a week of the hack they had pretty much laid out what had happened. I'm not going to go back over the whole sequence of events, but when you start comparing their response verses the response of other major corporations and banks, Sony is almost a model for swift and decisive action to protect their customers as well as communicating with them. Odd that we had a full media blitz and even congressional action over the PSN hack, but major banking system hacks have barely measure a ripple in the news media, or congress…
Last edited by TheHighlander on 8/16/2012 11:43:28 AM
lol – they were down for a *month*, Highlander. A full friggin' MONTH!
You need not be a computer scientist to see that this is in no way shape or form a model of *anything* other than a disaster story. You can't compare it with anything cause it's incomparable!
How do you think the headlines would have been if any of your major banking system hacks had caused a downtime of even a TENTH of that? It would have caused a breakdown of the entire world economy!
Had PSN only needed to be down for a few minutes or even hours before they were up and running again with a password reset I can promise – PROMISE – you that Sony would have been just as talkative about this as any other major corporation is when their security is breached.
But as it were, they simply HAD to go out and speak up. There were no alternatives, not when their entire network had collapsed on this scale.
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/16/2012 2:30:18 PM
I know how long the were down for. I'm not talking about the time taken to recover full operation. I'm talking about the time taken to disclose and terminate the attack. Sony took the single most drastic step available in order to protect their customers. The consequences of that were an extended outage. But like I said, the way they handled the disclosure of the attack and the lengths they were prepared to go to to protect customers should be recognized.
If you don't wish to give credit where it's due, that's your privilege. I think that they deserve some credit for how they handled the attack.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 8/16/2012 4:56:55 PM
I think they just did what they *had* to do under those circumstances. I don't see how they could do it much different. You can't just say nothing when your network is down for week after week. Personally I'd appreciate it if they were a bit more straight with us. Surely they knew about the required downtime length to a much greater extent than what they told. It just sounded better to delay it with "we know more in a weeks time" kind of strategy.
It was a fairly good damage control, I don't see it as much more or less than that.
So it was ok I guess. 🙂
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/17/2012 4:22:57 AM