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Seems Sony really has kicked up the swarm with that GeoHot clamp down. I am fairly certain that there are some executive meetings that are seriously questionin

Seems Sony really has kicked up the swarm with that GeoHot clamp down. I am fairly certain that there are some executive meetings that are seriously questioning whether or not that initial action was wise. I never thought this type of extortion could work, but Hot Damn. This is an effective campaign. Talk about relentless! Edit: This is really a losing battle for Sony. They are too big, there are too many vulnerabilities. They are too exposed. I know this sounds extreme, but are we witnessing the end of Sony as we know it ? It sounds ridiculous on the surface, but think about the distraction this has become. The billions of dollars of civil liabilities they are now open to, and this is not stopping any time soon. Talk about the perfect storm created by one anonymous group. Kinda insane, but also feels kinda cool....in a weird way. There is something liberating about a small group of 'anonymous' hackers taking on a Goliath of a corporation and winning. And I am a Capitalist to the core. Although, the likely, annoying outcome of this is that this strengthens the hand of those that want a 'censored' Internet to prevent these types of things from happening. So this could very well lead to the end of the internet as we know it today. Also very hyperbolic, I know....but I believe it to be true.

spydum 15y ago
I didn't see anything being attributed to anonymous here.. just some hackers looking to hop on the bandwagon, stumbling across a very simple vulnerability in one of the many Sony properties.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  But I am quite sure Sony's board knows very well what event started all this.
- r00fus 15y ago
  This is the 3rd or 4th such attack. Even if they're completely clueless: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
  - shii 15y ago
    11th actually. This article[1] documents the last 10 times up with today making it 11. Starts from the first DDoS by Anonymous on Apr 4. [1]: http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/05/24/sony-goes-silent-as-its-hacking-spree-snowballs/ http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/05/24/sony-goes-s...
    - r00fus 15y ago
      Jeebus, 11? I stand corrected.
- illumin8 15y ago
  Lulzsec is loosely affiliated with Anonymous. I'm pretty sure several lulzsec members may be hanging out in Anon-Ops IRC channels at any given time.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    I think you're right. I was lurking in the anonops irc earlier and there was quite a bit of chatter about lulzsec. There was some talk about paying lulzsec to attack new targets, but I'm pretty sure it was idle chatter. Either way, it seems probable that there's some significant overlap in membership.
blantonl 15y ago
I don't think we're witnessing the end of Sony, but we are certainly witnessing the end of their online ventures. What is very interesting is that all of their Web properties seem so stove-piped. No common architectural direction, no standards, no common security defenses. It's almost as if Sony's marketing departments are leading all Web development efforts for the company. No serious enterprise ever lets that happen. Oh, wait... :) (Tongue in cheek)
- rowaway1 15y ago
  where did the term "stove-piped" come from? how did "stove piping" come to signify any system built in isolation from other systems?
- T-R 15y ago
  I'd be surprised if the majority of their web properties were built in-house. A large chunk of the Japanese software industry is composed of companies that fight over contracts from the MNCs to do those kinds of projects (websites, software for embedded systems, customized software for internal use).
- timclark 15y ago
  My experience with working for companies of a similar size in the beverage, fast food and running shoe industries is that the cost in money and time of developing on the corporate mandated development platform makes it impossible for marketing departments to deliver their crazy websites. This results in the marketing department paying to host websites outside of the corporate infrastructure. So I expect that Sony is letting its marketing departments lead their web development effort since most of the sites will be marketing sites.
pkulak 15y ago
What the hell did they do that got people so pissed off?
- kristofferR 15y ago
  Sue a bunch of people for re-enabling Linux and enabling homebrew on the PS3
- nitrogen 15y ago
  Just in case you really don't know, the various branches of Sony have demonstrated technological contempt for [their] customers for years. I'll omit their insistence on promoting their own products over other standards and general push for increased DRM, such as Minidisc/ATRAC, Blu-ray, etc. and focus on their actual attacks. It started with the CD root kit fiasco, in which music CDs distributed by Sony infected Windows PCs with software designed to prevent the ripping of music CDs to the computer, which also contained exploitable holes used by malware to infect computers. Sony then removed the Other OS (e.g. Linux) feature from the new version of its PS3 consoles. This wasn't too egregious, but next they retroactively removed Other OS from older consoles that originally supported it. That upset a lot of people. Along came GeoHot, a reverse engineer determined to get Other OS back, and no doubt other less-outspoken hackers. So he and the others did, and along with it recovered Sony's private key used to sign PS3 software, allowing Linux to access all the hardware of the PS3, as well as running other homebrew software. Less-scrupulous individuals, not including GeoHot himself, used the aforementioned work to run pirated software on the PS3. This upset Sony. The straw that broke the camel's back, though, was Sony suing GeoHot into oblivion (I personally suspect they also astroturfed gaming sites to get GeoHot's hack associated with cheaters at Call of Duty, which it was not). This is the final event that triggered the misguided but potent onslaught of attacks against any and all Sony properties. References: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy... https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PlayStation_3#Private_key_compromised https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PlayStation_3... [Edit: fixed botched pronoun after partial sentence rewrite]
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
BoppreH 15y ago
Sony is not a Goliath. Sony is the old, senile neighbor shaking his fists as the kids throw stones at his windows. They have a huge surface area to be targeted and very few people tasked with defending them, against god knows how many hackers that take joy in doing this. And it takes only one to wreak havoc, and they can only do something with the person after the damage is done. This is true for most corporations with online presence, but Sony gave the hackers a reason to target them specifically. As someone who doesn't own any Sony products and doesn't know or is in the groups making this madness, I can just sit back and enjoy some popcorn.
CamperBob 15y ago
I am fairly certain that there are some executive meetings that are seriously questioning whether or not that initial action was wise. The only thing happening in those executive meetings at Sony is a discussion of which lobbyists to hire and which laws to buy in order to punish their legitimate paying customers even further.
w1ntermute 15y ago
> I know this sounds extreme, but are we witnessing the end of Sony as we know it ? Well, Sony (and the rest of Japanese industry) has been on a downward spiral for the last 2 decades. This is just the final blow. Their end has been in sight for at least 5 years now.
goombastic 15y ago
A lot of the large enterprises are run this way. I doubt if any extremely large enterprise can withstand this many ongoing attacks.

spydum 15y ago

I didn't see anything being attributed to anonymous here.. just some hackers looking to hop on the bandwagon, stumbling across a very simple vulnerability in one of the many Sony properties.

rbanffy 15y ago
But I am quite sure Sony's board knows very well what event started all this.
r00fus 15y ago
This is the 3rd or 4th such attack. Even if they're completely clueless: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
- shii 15y ago
  11th actually. This article[1] documents the last 10 times up with today making it 11. Starts from the first DDoS by Anonymous on Apr 4. [1]: http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/05/24/sony-goes-silent-as-its-hacking-spree-snowballs/ http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/05/24/sony-goes-s...
  - r00fus 15y ago
    Jeebus, 11? I stand corrected.
illumin8 15y ago
Lulzsec is loosely affiliated with Anonymous. I'm pretty sure several lulzsec members may be hanging out in Anon-Ops IRC channels at any given time.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  I think you're right. I was lurking in the anonops irc earlier and there was quite a bit of chatter about lulzsec. There was some talk about paying lulzsec to attack new targets, but I'm pretty sure it was idle chatter. Either way, it seems probable that there's some significant overlap in membership.

blantonl 15y ago

I don't think we're witnessing the end of Sony, but we are certainly witnessing the end of their online ventures. What is very interesting is that all of their Web properties seem so stove-piped. No common architectural direction, no standards, no common security defenses. It's almost as if Sony's marketing departments are leading all Web development efforts for the company. No serious enterprise ever lets that happen. Oh, wait... :) (Tongue in cheek)

rowaway1 15y ago
where did the term "stove-piped" come from? how did "stove piping" come to signify any system built in isolation from other systems?
T-R 15y ago
I'd be surprised if the majority of their web properties were built in-house. A large chunk of the Japanese software industry is composed of companies that fight over contracts from the MNCs to do those kinds of projects (websites, software for embedded systems, customized software for internal use).
timclark 15y ago
My experience with working for companies of a similar size in the beverage, fast food and running shoe industries is that the cost in money and time of developing on the corporate mandated development platform makes it impossible for marketing departments to deliver their crazy websites. This results in the marketing department paying to host websites outside of the corporate infrastructure. So I expect that Sony is letting its marketing departments lead their web development effort since most of the sites will be marketing sites.

pkulak 15y ago

What the hell did they do that got people so pissed off?

kristofferR 15y ago
Sue a bunch of people for re-enabling Linux and enabling homebrew on the PS3
nitrogen 15y ago
Just in case you really don't know, the various branches of Sony have demonstrated technological contempt for [their] customers for years. I'll omit their insistence on promoting their own products over other standards and general push for increased DRM, such as Minidisc/ATRAC, Blu-ray, etc. and focus on their actual attacks. It started with the CD root kit fiasco, in which music CDs distributed by Sony infected Windows PCs with software designed to prevent the ripping of music CDs to the computer, which also contained exploitable holes used by malware to infect computers. Sony then removed the Other OS (e.g. Linux) feature from the new version of its PS3 consoles. This wasn't too egregious, but next they retroactively removed Other OS from older consoles that originally supported it. That upset a lot of people. Along came GeoHot, a reverse engineer determined to get Other OS back, and no doubt other less-outspoken hackers. So he and the others did, and along with it recovered Sony's private key used to sign PS3 software, allowing Linux to access all the hardware of the PS3, as well as running other homebrew software. Less-scrupulous individuals, not including GeoHot himself, used the aforementioned work to run pirated software on the PS3. This upset Sony. The straw that broke the camel's back, though, was Sony suing GeoHot into oblivion (I personally suspect they also astroturfed gaming sites to get GeoHot's hack associated with cheaters at Call of Duty, which it was not). This is the final event that triggered the misguided but potent onslaught of attacks against any and all Sony properties. References: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy... https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PlayStation_3#Private_key_compromised https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PlayStation_3... [Edit: fixed botched pronoun after partial sentence rewrite]
- redthrowaway 15y ago

BoppreH 15y ago

Sony is not a Goliath. Sony is the old, senile neighbor shaking his fists as the kids throw stones at his windows. They have a huge surface area to be targeted and very few people tasked with defending them, against god knows how many hackers that take joy in doing this. And it takes only one to wreak havoc, and they can only do something with the person after the damage is done. This is true for most corporations with online presence, but Sony gave the hackers a reason to target them specifically. As someone who doesn't own any Sony products and doesn't know or is in the groups making this madness, I can just sit back and enjoy some popcorn.

CamperBob 15y ago

I am fairly certain that there are some executive meetings that are seriously questioning whether or not that initial action was wise. The only thing happening in those executive meetings at Sony is a discussion of which lobbyists to hire and which laws to buy in order to punish their legitimate paying customers even further.

w1ntermute 15y ago

> I know this sounds extreme, but are we witnessing the end of Sony as we know it ? Well, Sony (and the rest of Japanese industry) has been on a downward spiral for the last 2 decades. This is just the final blow. Their end has been in sight for at least 5 years now.

goombastic 15y ago

A lot of the large enterprises are run this way. I doubt if any extremely large enterprise can withstand this many ongoing attacks.