Sony finds "proof" Anon was involved in PSN hack

[mjc0961]

I don't see why this matters. Either it helps them find the guilty party or it doesn't. It either being anon or not anon doesn't really mean anything either way, it's not like there's some kind of anon member list is there?

Find the people who did it, then you can search their shit and find out if they were "anon" or not.

 

[exp. 99]

Even if it was Anonymous, that really doesn't say much of anything...after all, with everybody and their mom being able to claim legitimate membership to "anonymous", all you have is that you have a group of individuals using a blanket name to their deeds.

Kinda like saying the terrorists were responsible for bombings A, B and C; the fault lays not with all terrorists everywhere, but with the small group that actually did the deed.

So overall, this news story has the collective impact of jack shit.

 

[O maestre]

the problem is even if anon signed a letter.. which they practically did, there is nothing to be done, no one to prosecute because anon is anonymous... in the end it doesn't matter

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well I think the situation is complicated by the simple fact that there are internet "hacktivists" who are trying to use the Anonymous name as an umbrella for their activities.

While 4 years old now, consider this message from Anonymous in response to Fox News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFjU8bZR19A

Now compare that attitude, and what we've seen with kids like Jessi Slaughter, to the wikileaks fiasco, and the current attacks on Sony. I'll also point out that a lot of sites that were sort of connected to Anonymous, at least by reputation, like Encyclopedia Dramatica, have been changing their stripes as well, I suspect because of the attention the more high profile internet antics of Anonymous have been getting, with successful attacks against goverments, and businesses.

It wouldn't surprise me if Anonymous *IS* responsible for the attacks on PSN and Sony, given that they don't make promises. Of course it can also be argued that they said they weren't letting it go, and really we haven't seen any real damage done to the users, just potential damages which are reflecting on Sony. There is also the distinction that Sony itself has taken the services down apparently, as opposed to them being knocked offline through DDOS attacks. To a certain way of thinking, it can be argued that even though Anonymous doesn't keep promises as a general rule, it might be keeping this one. That said, it DOES seem odd that Anonymous would have hidden files in the code, rather than be making a spectacle out of the thing.

It's also possible that there isn't Anonymous, the MO seems more akin to what older groups in the spirit of "Legion Of Doom" or "Masters Of Deception" might have done.

I'm being contridictory and rambling, but the bottom line is that we don't actually know anything.

Also I'll be honest, to me The Internet is about freedom, and truthfully I think that trumps the need for the security desired by businesses. Sony went online, and decided to be a douche on an unprecedented level in the way it shut off advertised features of it's consoles, honestly I think getting what they deserve is actually a benefit of the internet, where in other aspects of society, they would have gottn away with this unscathed simply due to being a rich multi-national corperation. This doesn't make Anonymous morally right, but it does make Sony's plight unsympathetic.

 

[weker]

Far from bulletproof, and if I was in the position of the hacker I would probably do the same thing to cover my tracks given the recent troubles between Anon and Sony, but there you go.

I will just say this is why this forum is great.
* Looks at gametrailers forum "Remember when they said it wasn't them a few weeks ago? LOL!"
Thats what you get everywhere else (although GT is one of the worst)

People need to understand that a note saying anon did it could be replaced with the following.

That being said anyone can claim to be in anonymous. Saying 'it was anonymous' is like saying 'the shooting was done by some sort of gang member'
Which tells you about .05% of the information you need.

 

[Busdriver580]

So Sony thinks it's a good idea to whine about basement hackers beating a global corporation?

 

[linwolf]

Well anyone saying that they are anon is by definition anon so yes this is proof of anon.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Well tough. EITHER Anon is anyone who calls themselves that OR Anon is a specific group of people.

Anon is the former. Anyone who says otherwise is incorrect.

This. I don't see how it's that hard to grasp.

 

[DaHero]

It's ironic at best that Anonymous claims they're not a group, yet that also means nobody can believe anything posted about anonymous since they're not supposed to exist as an entity...

Which means...none of this ever happened?

Yeah Anonymous is a group...guerilla warfare really, so taking down the leader of it wouldn't do anything because his buddies can just pick up the slack and add a new guy.

 

[RaikuFA]

anon should just help sony catch them

 

[ZombieGenesis]

It may be good for convincing the public, but unless the message is tracable, there's no evidence that it was written by anyone associated with Anon. Of course Anon might have done it with clear knowledge of that, but still, this whole event seems too well organised for a cell-divided group like them.

Either way, what does it matter? Anon has never been a 'one mind' group, some go one way, some go another. Anon in this case is pretty much analogous for just saying "person".

 

[Jonsbax]

Umm, what the crap, people? They simply stated what the file they found said, and then called whoever did this cyberterrorists. I missed the part where they blamed Anonymous for anything, so the headline on Kotaku was just plain bad sensational writing, and so is the name of this topic.

Nice work making another debate about Anonymous and PSN here, though. Been missing those.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

Odds are they're either lying or the hacker is attempting to cover their tracks. Let's assume they didn't plant it themselves, then the hacker is obviously not aligned with anon's goals. It's very obviously a for profit hack because the hacker is selling the credit card numbers, anon would have no interest in that.

Frankly the entire type of hack is something that doesn't fit anon's goals, it's not targeting PSN, it's targeting PSN's users.


It's not Anon's modus operendi, and after sony taking so long to admit the problem as well as their previous issues (like it's cds installing a rootkit) my first instinct is that sony is trying to do this to get some sympathy from the courts with the inevitable millions of lawsuits it will face.

 

[TilMorrow]

Yes because it is entirely possible that Anonymous and only Anonymous could make a file with the words 'We are Legion' in and leave it on the SOE servers as incriminating evidence and it definitely wasn't made by someone at sony in an attempt to actually have someone to blame other than the 'anonymous' hackers that got access to both PSN and SOE. Oh wait maybe it was made by an anonymous hacker and not necessarily an Anonymous hacker.

Personally I just want PSN up so I can get Portal 2 for PS3 and PC.

 

[Pendragon9]

Hmm, should I believe the corporation that has made a few mistakes in the past, but overall provided me with a solid gameplay experience? Or should I believe the random people online who STEAL games for a living, lie about it, and have a superiority complex big enough to make them DDOS game servers?

I'll be taking Sony's word on this one.

 

[LordFisheh]

Oh for Christ's sake.

There is no anonymous, as convenient as it may be to think there is. There is no evil organisation that pretends to be good but is actually evil but is a heroic freedom fighter next week until it's evil again.

Anons don't all know what the others are doing, or agree with them. Condemning them as evil terrorists makes about as much sense as condemning a nation for the crimes of a few of its citizens or adoring a nation for a few of its heroes. Anon has no official organisation, just different people doing different things.

 

[Wolfram23]

Technically, even if it wasn't a planned attack by the "anon" hacker group, if someone claims to be anon then they are. After all, isn't that their mantra?

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

It's not Anonymous as a group.

It's the opposite of what they normally do, and would have the opposite effect of what they want.

They also aren't the type to deny their actions, they like having everybody knowing they did stuff.

It's mostly comprised of just random people, the majority of which would drop out once they found out they'd be doing something this illegal. Also, the majority would not be able to tackle sony this way.

It's likely a single person, or a small group who are HIGHLY skilled, and may or may not be autonomous "memebers".

 

[Lagslayer]

(fuckin' zero punctuation slowing the site down and eating my posts...)

Yep, this was Anonymous.

See, Anon can't have this both ways. They're very quick to do that whole 'that granny walking her dog? Anonymous. We are everyone' thing but the second something bad gets blamed on them it's all 'no true Anon would do this'.

Well tough. EITHER Anon is anyone who calls themselves that OR Anon is a specific group of people.

Exactly this.