On Monday, April 4, the mysterious hacker collective that goes by the name Anonymous sent an ominous threat towards Sony for abusing "the judicial system in an attempt to censor information," and for victimizing its customers for merely "possession and sharing information."
The threat read: "Now you will experience the wretch of Anonymous. Expect us." It turns out they weren't playing. According to various reports, the group is responsible for today's shutdown of Sony's Playstation Network and of the Playstation.com website.
The threat came after Sony decided to take strict legal action against hacker George Hotz. Hotz, known online as Geohot, is best known for being the first to unlock Apple's iPhone. He wound up on Sony's radar after he "jailbroke" his Playstation 3 so it would run unauthorized games and software, and shared the instructions to do so.
The Playstation website, which seems to be back up and running, was down for the greater part of the day. Anonymous claimed it carried out a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that brought down the site.
Sony would not comment as to whether the downtime was a result of the hack. When asked about the Playstation Network outage was quoted as saying, "We are currently investigating issues with Playstation Network, our engineers are working to retire and maintain the services."
[via The Inquirer]
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KushFu April 6th, 2011 at 05:37 PM
fools is fukkin w/ my team that aint rite .......
Omg April 7th, 2011 at 12:37 AM
Just want to play SOCOM 4 beta and this is the third day I haven't been able to get on. Jesus.
Andren April 7th, 2011 at 12:48 AM
Tell me about it. I'm a hard core computer gamer, not console, but I like to use the PS3 when I'm gaming on the computer for things like Hulu and Netflix. Can't use either if you can't log into the PS Network. I understand the original concept of hacking, used to know some hackers back in the mid 90s, but they were about freeing information, not denying it. And in all honesty, Geohot did break the law. Have a ton of other people used the hacks for the PS and PS2, hell yes, but Sony still has the right to take him to court. And in all honestly, it's not like Sony wasn't hit bad enough by the quake, without self-righteous hackers trying to punish the gamers who use Sony products while claiming to punish Sony. What a load of crap.
Nick April 7th, 2011 at 01:15 AM
Loser hackers, why don't they fuck off and do soemthing constructive instead of ruining it for the rest of us playstation network users. How can they possibly think that Sony are wrong, it's in the the terms and conditions/EULA what you can and can't do with the product. If you breach these rules then deal with consequences. It's a bit like stealing something and then trying to justify it by saying that it should be free.
Stu April 7th, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Virgin gamers telling hackers to get laid lol. you should be mad at Sony for telling you, you can install Linux and then suing ppl Sony will lose, and its not about Sony vs xbox you idiots. Its about freedom of information!
Mike April 23rd, 2011 at 09:34 AM
Haha, STFU Stu...go watch "hackers" and jack off some more. "and its not about Sony vs xbox you idiots. Its about freedom of information!" < Dumbass, lol.
Jay April 7th, 2011 at 04:20 PM
Tried to watch movies on Vudu & Netflix last night, now neither site will accept my credit card. This is the same card I've been using on PSN for 4 years.
Bigboy April 8th, 2011 at 04:11 AM
The freaking servers are down today man I just want to play some black ops but nnoo some dumb ass had to go ruin it by shutting the servers down
Tuckjw4200 April 21st, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Anonymous needs to get their "butts" (censored) in line before the "wrong" (right) person gets p*ssed off. HACKERS ie ANONYMOUS is just as bad as the Nuke. Nukelar energy was made to help mankind were as it was used to harm. WELL the skills poorly used by said hackers was ment to help not harm what are they doing? misuse of great talent. Stu needs to get his junk straightened out the ps3 is a freaking gaming constole not a computer that "clause" in the terms of use is there to keep ppl like hackers from screwing with the gaming codes and ruining the fun of the whole. if you want to use Linux buy a Laptop or pc. Sony won't lose their fighting with the law behind their back. Break the law you go to jail or u lose alot of money.
Rebelhope April 21st, 2011 at 09:51 PM
So Hacker Group Anonymous takes its revenge by pissing off over 400 million people? Can't wait for the first one of those fuckers to be found dead on a street corner and another in jail for what he did PlayStation, take them to court
Alex April 21st, 2011 at 11:04 PM
im going to kill this bitch.