Gearbox Head Blasts "Evil" PSN Hackers

[John Funk]

Gearbox Head Blasts "Evil" PSN Hackers

Gearbox's Randy Pitchford thinks that the people responsible for bringing PSN down are "cyber-terrorists," and that Sony needs gamers' support, not their scorn.

Sony has taken a lot of heat for its role (or lack thereof) in the Eurogamer [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/psn%20down?from_search=1] on a tour to promote Duke Nukem Forever, Pitchford had some very harsh words to say about the PSN attack.

"Every one of us who plays games on PlayStation Network - and especially Sony - we're all victims of cyber-terrorism," said Pitchford. "We should all be rallying our support, hating the terrorists, wishing to dismantle that problem, because that could strike at any time and disrupt our fun and disrupt our way of life as gamers."

Instead, said Pitchford, gamers and press and even politicians had pointed fingers at Sony when the hardware giant needed support more than anything else. "It's freakin' terrible. [The hackers] are evil, they're criminal," he said. "We're all throwing darts at Sony - we should all give 'em hugs and help 'em out ... It's the first time we've experienced it in the games industry and I think we're failing in how we respond to it. Everyone who is attacking Sony right now is failing. We need to attack cyber-terrorists."

What's more, Pitchford said that this attack could embolden others to do more like it in the future.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with calling it cyber-terrorism, to be honest. That devalues the very real threat of real-world terrorism, and it's hard to compare not being able to play videogames online for a few weeks to fearing for your very life - even if publishers and developers have seen some fiscal troubles.

Is it criminal? Absolutely. But "terrorism" seems a bit much.

(Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-13-pitchford-hits-out-at-evil-psn-hackers])

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[Pirakahunter788]

I agree.
Sure, Sony fell off the ball. But if we don't concentrate on the actual enemy, the people who caused this to happen, they're just going to strike again and again whenever they get the chance.

 

[FloodOne]

So, putting the financial well being of millions of consumers at tremendous risk isn't an act of terrorism? You're joking, right?

 

[Iwata]

I think he's absolutely right! I was astounded as a gamer to see the ire Sony drew with this, them being the victims of something unprecedented. It could've happened to anyone, Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft. We (as a community) should've been helping, rather than pointing fingers, or worse, as I saw here, actually taking joy from what happened!

 

[v3n0mat3]

I've been saying this ever since it started. Blaming Sony for this is just wrong.

 

[The Mighty Thesaurus]

They are cyber-vikings

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

Cyber terrorism is called for, imo, because this was an information breach more than anything else. The most obvious loss is the ability to play online obviously, but never forget that personal data was stolen in this attack, not least of which being credit card info.

I agree wholeheartedly with Pitchford here. Sony's handling of this situation may not have been ideal, but they're certainly not the people we should be pointing fingers at.

 

[Pearwood]

It was very much cyber terrorism, hundreds of thousands of people have had their information stolen and a major corporation has suffered a substantial loss which might not mean much to any of us but I'm betting it means a hell of a lot to the people who work there.

 

[RatRace123]

I say cyber terrorism is a pretty accurate term. It's not just that they brought down PSN for a few weeks, they may have also stolen the personal and credit information of millions of people.
If the threat of millions of cases of identity theft isn't a good enough example of cyber terrorism, I don't know what is.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I'd call it cyber-terrorism when the data they stole from Sony is enough for people to be concerned if not scared of having their identities stolen.

I completely agree with Pitchfork. I've never understood the amount of finger pointing that Sony has been getting, I mean, yeah how they handled it was the greatest, but they are victims in all this. The hackers should be the ones everyone should be going after, not Sony.

 

[squid5580]

How is his unprecedented? Are hackers new all of a sudden? If you are online with whatever piece of plastic hackers are a risk. Always have been, always will be. Sony doesn't get hugs for allowing it to happen. Sony gets chastized for not being 1 step ahead of them like they should be. You don't give a cookie to the security guard who slept through the robbery do you? Both (Sony and hackers) are wrong for different reasons and both deserve to be punished.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

I agree and I've never pointed finger at Sony, I merely wanted hackers dead. For the greater good.

 

[drowboy]

Amen to that. Sony is doing its best to recover and FIX what was done.

Also by any definition it is terrorism, disruption and invasion into people's daily lives, taking their financial information and disrupting their very peace of mind, and in possible cases affecting people's futures. That sounds like terrorism to me despite the intentions, doubly so because of the attackers anonymity, whoever they were. With luck and vigilance though this can be learned from and avoided in the future.

While I am upset that the network is down it is NOT Sony's fault, and I will patiently await its return, with upgrades.

 

[Regiment]

I agree with everything Randy says. Sony needs our support. The hackers are rotten people, through and through.

Is it cyber-terrorism? Well, when you heard about the possible theft of your personal data, were you upset? Did you fear your credit card would be stolen? If so, the hackers are terrorists in the literal sense of the word - they caused terror.

 

[Whoracle]

Disclaimer: The PSN hack and theft of personal data was a crime. I don't want to argue this point.

That said, what does he propose we'll (or rather you, I don't have a PS3...) do? Happily continue buying Sony products?

By all accounts that I have read, this whole fiasco happened because a) some asshats wanted to hack Sony and b) Sony did not take the neccessary precautions against data theft, namely intrusion prevention and, first and foremost, keeping only as much data stored as absolutely needed.

The hackers will be dealt with when they are found. But holding Sonys hand now would send the wrong signale, namely: "It does not matter how much you f*** up, we'll forgive you!" Sony (and really most if not all of the big corps that want to have our data) needs to learn that they have to protect this data. They have to get shafted for this one so that in the future they'll think twice on "Is this data really needed? If yes, how do we secure it?"

Think of it like this: If someone breaks into your house, he's a burglar. But if you leave your door wide open and your precious family jewels clearly visible behind it (hyperbole, but bear with me), all this while living in a bad neighborhood in the slums of StealTown, you'll rightfully be partly blamed for the break-in. And this is what currently happens to Sony.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well really, I don't give a damn what you CALL the hackers that hit PSN. What the man says about supporting Sony rather than harming them makes sense. I mean, basically, THEY didn't do it, so...yeah.

 

[Choppaduel]

I'm with you, Funk!

Pitchford is throwing terms "evil" and "terrorism" around like some sort of politician appealing to spiteful, ignorant masses.

The hackers are not evil, but very foolish.

Sony had needed to update its security policy and the hackers proved that.

I really hope resources aren't wasted on a witch hunt for hackers & are instead used to bolster security.

Also, have any major fraud cases come from this information leak?

 

[drowboy]

Disclaimer: The PSN hack and theft of personal data was a crime. I don't want to argue this point.

That said, what does he propose we'll (or rather you, I don't have a PS3...) do? Happily continue buying Sony products?

By all accounts that I have read, this whole fiasco happened because a) some asshats wanted to hack Sony and b) Sony did not take the neccessary precautions against data theft, namely intrusion prevention and, first and foremost, keeping only as much data stored as absolutely needed.

The hackers will be dealt with when they are found. But holding Sonys hand now would send the wrong signale, namely: "It does not matter how much you f*** up, we'll forgive you!" Sony (and really most if not all of the big corps that want to have our data) needs to learn that they have to protect this data. They have to get shafted for this one so that in the future they'll think twice on "Is this data really needed? If yes, how do we secure it?"

Think of it like this: If someone breaks into your house, he's a burglar. But if you leave your door wide open and your precious family jewels clearly visible behind it (hyperbole, but bear with me), all this while living in a bad neighborhood in the slums of StealTown, you'll rightfully be partly blamed for the break-in. And this is what currently happens to Sony.

No one is arguing that Sony dropped the ball, but if you go to the website they have promised that they are giving complimentary Identity Protection services and help to psn members as compensation in the from of free Playstation plus/qrocity services for 1 month plus however long the network is down. This is them saying OK we're sorry, now we'll fix it and here's something for the inconvenience. As long as them admit guilt and cover for any losses due to this issue I feel that they should be forgiven for their mistakes.