So who's hacking Sony, Honda, RIM?

[awake]

Any guesses why these companies are under hack attacks?

[pcosmar]

Don't know about all of them but Sony has been shitting on folks a long time. lots of folks are rightfully pissed.
I will not buy any product from Sony since their Trojan attack on customers. And the present Game console bullshit has many angered.

[yoshimaroka]

Lone wolf oooowwwwww? CIA?
Who knows. In any case it's ammo for the guberment to impose themselves on the interwebs.

BTW, I was thinking about the infrastructure of the internet— isn't it pretty centralized? Hopefully soon enough there should be power enough mini towers for consumers so that we could have the outernet™.

[jtstellar]

Don't know about all of them but Sony has been shitting on folks a long time. lots of folks are rightfully pissed.
I will not buy any product from Sony since their Trojan attack on customers. And the present Game console bullshit has many angered.

mark me interested.. care to elaborate?

[pcosmar]

mark me interested.. care to elaborate?

Lot out there, Many sources if ya search. But here,,
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/sony-music-cds-surreptitiously-install-drm-trojan-horses-on-pcs/2092

The other is the Playstation Network. it has been down for some time screwing folks that had invested in the overpriced crap.
They claim is that it was hacked. (piss poor security) but they still haven't restored service a month later.

[Working Poor]

I bet they have some kind of alternative energy device that is pissing off big oil.

[anaconda]

Don't know about all of them but Sony has been shitting on folks a long time. lots of folks are rightfully pissed.
I will not buy any product from Sony since their Trojan attack on customers. And the present Game console bullshit has many angered.

This was almost immediately after my 90 day return policy at Costco expired for my PS3. I have to log in every time I want to stream Netflix.

[pcosmar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ

They are also on the lead of legislation to control the web.

it never ends, this shit.

[affa]

Lot out there, Many sources if ya search. But here,,
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/sony-music-cds-surreptitiously-install-drm-trojan-horses-on-pcs/2092

The other is the Playstation Network. it has been down for some time screwing folks that had invested in the overpriced crap.
They claim is that it was hacked. (piss poor security) but they still haven't restored service a month later.

this a uh... well, really just misinformation, as is a lot of information being bandied about the blogs. they had up to date security, but were hit with a rather large DDOS attack (distributed denial of service -- think a million computers pinging servers, much like a crowd not letting someone in the door of a store). At the same time (under the cover of the DDOS), there was a sophisticated attack on servers (basically, while techs were busy scrambling to deal with the other attack, in an attempt to avoid detection). Most likely, this was timed on purpose- the DDOS was planned and performed by Anonymous, so plenty of people knew it was coming, so someone in that group or aware of that group likely just timed their own attack to coincide with it.

Fortunately, a tech noticed a server reboot itself when it shouldn't have (this was the hacker basically taking over the server). As soon as they realized they were breached, they shut down everything (better safe than sorry) which took down PSN, which is the network that lets people play PS3 online. Sony immediately hired an extremely well respected security firm, and then, within a few days, hired a second firm as well. They identified several compromised servers, spent several days figuring out what exactly was breached and what might have been taken, and then started rebuilding security from scratch. Rebuilding and quality assurance took several weeks, during which PS3 players ran around screaming and blogs misreported every little false detail as fact. People have been able to play online again for the past week or so, though the store is still down (but expected up any day now).

Ultimately, very little was actually taken. The hacker got names, addresses, and other very basic phone book type data for PSN users. Sony and the security firms found no evidence of them getting credit card information (which was encrypted anyway), but warned people it was a possibility since it's realistically possible that the hacker covered his tracks. There was evidence, however, of the other data being compromised, so it's likely no cc data was taken. Even if it was, it was encrypted. The hackers also got user passwords, but these were hashed (so, basically, unusable).

The Anonymous ddos attack happened because they were mad that Sony prosecuted a different hacker that was trying to hack the PS3 to allow custom firmware. Many people like the concept of custom firmware since it lets you run custom software on the system, but the unfortunate side effect is that it allows piracy which is why Sony (and other consoles) fight against it. The sophisticated real hack attack was perpetrated by an unknown hacker(s).

That's pretty much everything that is publicly known at this point. Any 'sky is falling they have our credit card info' was utter bs flung around the blogosphere.

Sony has certainly done a few things wrong in their time. Perhaps the biggest happened several years ago when the copy protection on a music cd basically installed a root kit on your computer. Totally ridiculous, should never have happed, and Sony got kicked in the head for it and stopped doing it.

[Cdn_for_liberty]

Sony just couldn't catch a break lately

recently, their Sony Ericsson store got hacked too.

[pcosmar]

this a uh... well, really just misinformation,
Ah, not quite.
http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk/archives/2011/05/03/sony-hit-with-second-loss-of-customer-information
http://thefresnonews.com/2011/05/sony-reports-second-loss-of-customer-information-fox-news
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/26/us-sony-results-idUSTRE74P0YZ20110526
Those are not blogs.
http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Loses+Yet+More+Customer+Records+3+More+Sites+ Hacked/article21725.htm
Should Sony quit the internet?

Sony has certainly done a few things wrong in their time.

More than a few. Overpriced, Piss poor business practices. They're in bed with RIAA as well.
If you are making enemies of the tech savvy, expect repercussions.

[One Last Battle!]

this a uh... well, really just misinformation, as is a lot of information being bandied about the blogs. they had up to date security, but were hit with a rather large DDOS attack (distributed denial of service -- think a million computers pinging servers, much like a crowd not letting someone in the door of a store). At the same time (under the cover of the DDOS), there was a sophisticated attack on servers (basically, while techs were busy scrambling to deal with the other attack, in an attempt to avoid detection). Most likely, this was timed on purpose- the DDOS was planned and performed by Anonymous, so plenty of people knew it was coming, so someone in that group or aware of that group likely just timed their own attack to coincide with it.

Fortunately, a tech noticed a server reboot itself when it shouldn't have (this was the hacker basically taking over the server). As soon as they realized they were breached, they shut down everything (better safe than sorry) which took down PSN, which is the network that lets people play PS3 online. Sony immediately hired an extremely well respected security firm, and then, within a few days, hired a second firm as well. They identified several compromised servers, spent several days figuring out what exactly was breached and what might have been taken, and then started rebuilding security from scratch. Rebuilding and quality assurance took several weeks, during which PS3 players ran around screaming and blogs misreported every little false detail as fact. People have been able to play online again for the past week or so, though the store is still down (but expected up any day now).

Ultimately, very little was actually taken. The hacker got names, addresses, and other very basic phone book type data for PSN users. Sony and the security firms found no evidence of them getting credit card information (which was encrypted anyway), but warned people it was a possibility since it's realistically possible that the hacker covered his tracks. There was evidence, however, of the other data being compromised, so it's likely no cc data was taken. Even if it was, it was encrypted. The hackers also got user passwords, but these were hashed (so, basically, unusable).

The Anonymous ddos attack happened because they were mad that Sony prosecuted a different hacker that was trying to hack the PS3 to allow custom firmware. Many people like the concept of custom firmware since it lets you run custom software on the system, but the unfortunate side effect is that it allows piracy which is why Sony (and other consoles) fight against it. The sophisticated real hack attack was perpetrated by an unknown hacker(s).

That's pretty much everything that is publicly known at this point. Any 'sky is falling they have our credit card info' was utter bs flung around the blogosphere.

Sony has certainly done a few things wrong in their time. Perhaps the biggest happened several years ago when the copy protection on a music cd basically installed a root kit on your computer. Totally ridiculous, should never have happed, and Sony got kicked in the head for it and stopped doing it.

Anonymous/Anonops didn't do it.

I'm not shedding any tears for these morons. I wouldn't be too surprised if they were out there trying to get the government to nationalize the internet.

[pcosmar]

Anonymous/Anonops didn't do it.

I'm not shedding any tears for these morons. I wouldn't be too surprised if they were out there trying to get the government to nationalize the internet.

Now that is something I had not considered. But it does fit their MO.

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Don't know about all of them but Sony has been shitting on folks a long time. lots of folks are rightfully pissed.
I will not buy any product from Sony since their Trojan attack on customers. And the present Game console bullshit has many angered.

Same here, I never liked Sony Products much anyway.

[KingRobbStark]

Sony is a shit company anyway.

[affa]

Anonymous/Anonops didn't do it.

I'm not shedding any tears for these morons. I wouldn't be too surprised if they were out there trying to get the government to nationalize the internet.

If you actually read my post, I didn't say they did. They DID do a DDOS which coincided with the actual attack, though.

[affa]

Ah, not quite.
http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk/archives/2011/05/03/sony-hit-with-second-loss-of-customer-information
http://thefresnonews.com/2011/05/sony-reports-second-loss-of-customer-information-fox-news
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/26/us-sony-results-idUSTRE74P0YZ20110526
Those are not blogs.
http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Loses+Yet+More+Customer+Records+3+More+Sites+ Hacked/article21725.htm
Should Sony quit the internet?


More than a few. Overpriced, Piss poor business practices. They're in bed with RIAA as well.
If you are making enemies of the tech savvy, expect repercussions.

When I was talking about your misinformation, I meant the part about explaining the recent hack.

Now... getting to your posts:

1) your first and second links are about a breach of a different company (sony entertainment online, which is an offshoot which runs some mmo games like DC Universe Online) in which antiquated data (a couple years out of date) was taken. this has nothing to do with the hack of Sony's PSN which was being discussed, and was nowhere near the same level of sophistication. Most data taken was not for US customers, either.

2) And your third link is basically just detailing estimates of costs for the hack.

3) Your fourth link details a number of relatively minor hacks of related websites/webstores -- which just proves that Sony is under attack from all sides, which is fairly obvious. Again, none of these have anything on the real hack being discussed, which was the PSN hack.

None of this refutes anything in my post, which is an explanation of the real, significant hack that forced Sony to bring down PSN for a few weeks. Everything in my post is an accurate representation of what is known up to this point, at least for us peons. The hack has been completely overblown by the media because it was misreported for weeks by blogs that they got unencrypted credit card info and passwords, neither of which actually happened.

I'm no friend of Sony, and that rootkit thing still pisses me off. But accurate reporting is accurate reporting, and they're getting a really bum turn by the press on this particular incident. Other companies have been hacked FAR worse. Sony got brutalized because they played it safe, took down PSN while they figured everything out, and caused millions of gamers to flip out in the process. Had they not taken it down, and something worse happened, they'd have been in even more trouble. in my opinion, Sony did everything they could do here. This was the hackers fault, not theirs. And I'd blame them in a second if I could.

[smartguy911]

Sony is a really crappy company. Never buying any of their products ever again.

[Andrew-Austin]

My PS3 exploded and caught my house on fire, and the fire ended up killing my dog.

I tried to sue Sony for this, but they black-mailed me with naked photos of myself that my PS3 eyetoy had taken without my knowledge.

Seriously though, hadn't heard of anything bad about them before I read this thread.

[doodle]

Highly doubt its Obama handlers.

[anaconda]

Sony is a really crappy company. Never buying any of their products ever again.

I think their televisions are great.

[pcosmar]

When I was talking about your misinformation, I meant the part about explaining the recent hack.

Now... getting to your posts:

1) your first and second links are about a breach of a different company (sony entertainment online, which is an offshoot which runs some mmo games like DC Universe Online) in which antiquated data (a couple years out of date) was taken. this has nothing to do with the hack of Sony's PSN which was being discussed, and was nowhere near the same level of sophistication. Most data taken was not for US customers, either.

2) And your third link is basically just detailing estimates of costs for the hack.

3) Your fourth link details a number of relatively minor hacks of related websites/webstores -- which just proves that Sony is under attack from all sides, which is fairly obvious. Again, none of these have anything on the real hack being discussed, which was the PSN hack.

None of this refutes anything in my post, which is an explanation of the real, significant hack that forced Sony to bring down PSN for a few weeks. Everything in my post is an accurate representation of what is known up to this point, at least for us peons. The hack has been completely overblown by the media because it was misreported for weeks by blogs that they got unencrypted credit card info and passwords, neither of which actually happened.

I'm no friend of Sony, and that rootkit thing still pisses me off. But accurate reporting is accurate reporting, and they're getting a really bum turn by the press on this particular incident. Other companies have been hacked FAR worse. Sony got brutalized because they played it safe, took down PSN while they figured everything out, and caused millions of gamers to flip out in the process. Had they not taken it down, and something worse happened, they'd have been in even more trouble. in my opinion, Sony did everything they could do here. This was the hackers fault, not theirs. And I'd blame them in a second if I could.

What misinformation?
I said they had piss poor security. And that people were pissed. And that they had pissed off people (that don't forget) before.

As for them covering their asses about just what and how much was compromised, I am not inclined to give them any benefit of doubt.
http://thefresnonews.com/2011/05/sony-reports-second-loss-of-customer-information-fox-news
Links to,
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGcQGrUgTtAvVAPAp4DYcFwIs5Rhw&url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/03/sony_hack_exposes_more_customers/


Combined with a previously reported hack on the company's PlayStation Network, in which sensitive data for 78 million users is believed to have been stolen, the new disclosure means Sony has exposed personally identifiable information for 102.6 million user accounts. Sony has said that the passwords in the previously disclosed attack were also hashed, but so far hasn't supplied the same crucial details.

For the first time, Sony hinted that it would compensate users for the cost of enrolling in programs designed to prevent identity theft. “The implementation will be at a local level and further details will be made available shortly in each region,” Tuesday's press release from Sony said.
Especially considering the amount involved and their potential liability.
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNF3gJHXE5XziogdzRoglMjCIrO3rQ&url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0503/Sony-data-breach-could-be-most-expensive-ever

The quote you called misinformation,

Lot out there, Many sources if ya search. But here,,
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/sony-music-cds-surreptitiously-install-drm-trojan-horses-on-pcs/2092

The other is the Playstation Network. it has been down for some time screwing folks that had invested in the overpriced crap.
They claim is that it was hacked. (piss poor security) but they still haven't restored service a month later.
Was not based at all on Blogs or misinformation as you alluded. The information is available on reputable news outlets and tech news sites.

[BamaAla]

I've always liked Sony products. What about Honda? They make a terrific product be it cars, ATVs, small engines, or generators.

[pcosmar]

I've always liked Sony products. What about Honda? They make a terrific product be it cars, ATVs, small engines, or generators.

No idea about Honda, or if there is any connection. It is possible that they have pissed someone off.

Or as someone else suggested, it is a orchestrated "false flag" to give the government the control over the internet that they want.

[jtstellar]

sony is a japanese company? it is quite international but i'm not certain how much their national mentality affects them. their government seems quite deep in the business of telling people how to run companies with their intrusive laws and everything else. it is justified to some extent however, as their size is but the size of a large state in the us, just as many other asian countries. their federal government can be in a sense just like a state government here, and due to more local control it is arguably functional still to some extent. of course my sense is that a country of any size would benefit from a libertarian approach in government philosophy.

if they go to the US government while doing business here, it may be a stem from the past mentality while dealing with the japanese government, or it may not, since it is currently quite international.