"We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system."
I'm happy that Sony are doing everything they can, and by the book, to ensure PSN is as secure as possible following the idiotic acts of "GeoHot" (George Hotz), his bunch of hackers failOverflow and the self-professed internet activist protectors of the human race Anonymous. However I can't help but be slightly peeved that PSN restoration is being delayed by that of SOE.
As far as I see it, PSN and SOE are different entities and I woud have thought that they could have been addressed as such. I don't own any SOE games (and don't play Facebook games) so it's a bit gutting to find I'm still offline because of support work for those games.
There's also the question of what new damage Sony has found within the SOE system; information so far indicated that a legacy set of credit card information from 2007 had been stolen, will we be looking at another update soon saying that the hackers have accessed more recent and/or widespread user data? Alternatively, have the security firms they have contracted found other weak spots in security that have not been exploited to date? Only time will tell.
Back to my primary concern, PSN; Anonymous have denied they had anything to do with the theft of personal information and have alleged they've been framed by the real culprits, calling Sony incompetent and citing various other pseudo-altruistic catch-phrases to try to appear to hold the higher ground. They haven't really proved anything to me though, it's all well and good for their leadership to state they did not sanction any theft, but they cannot prove that a subset of their "Anons" haven't done so without such approval. They provided the tools and knowledge to carry out attacks, if they have taught the person who stole the data then they must share the blame for their actions, with power comes responsibility. Sony have hinted in their letter to the US House of Representatives (see entire letter here) that there should be more done to curtail the actions of such groups, and I for one would support a strenghening of legislation to effect this.
In my opinion, Anonymous should be viewed as a terrorist organisation and treated as such in the eyes of the law, because of the following traits:
As far as I see it, PSN and SOE are different entities and I woud have thought that they could have been addressed as such. I don't own any SOE games (and don't play Facebook games) so it's a bit gutting to find I'm still offline because of support work for those games.
There's also the question of what new damage Sony has found within the SOE system; information so far indicated that a legacy set of credit card information from 2007 had been stolen, will we be looking at another update soon saying that the hackers have accessed more recent and/or widespread user data? Alternatively, have the security firms they have contracted found other weak spots in security that have not been exploited to date? Only time will tell.
Back to my primary concern, PSN; Anonymous have denied they had anything to do with the theft of personal information and have alleged they've been framed by the real culprits, calling Sony incompetent and citing various other pseudo-altruistic catch-phrases to try to appear to hold the higher ground. They haven't really proved anything to me though, it's all well and good for their leadership to state they did not sanction any theft, but they cannot prove that a subset of their "Anons" haven't done so without such approval. They provided the tools and knowledge to carry out attacks, if they have taught the person who stole the data then they must share the blame for their actions, with power comes responsibility. Sony have hinted in their letter to the US House of Representatives (see entire letter here) that there should be more done to curtail the actions of such groups, and I for one would support a strenghening of legislation to effect this.
In my opinion, Anonymous should be viewed as a terrorist organisation and treated as such in the eyes of the law, because of the following traits:
- They are organised in a semi-autonomous, cell-like way, where the upper echelons can only advise their members how to act, not control their actions.
- Recruitment targets the same demographic as terrorist organisations; disaffected and rebellious boys and young men who intuitively resist any authority.
- Their intent is always to attack those they see as the enemies of the general public but their methods usually incur collateral damage to the public whose interests they are claiming to be fighting for.
Hopefully there will be reviews into this situation and the wider spectrum of information/internet legislation. I for one would be happier if information I shared with US companies was protected in a real sense by proper legal sanctions, not by self-professed saviours who are breaking the law to protest against the currently legal actions of those who abuse information. Hackers such as Anonymous could then concentrate upon getting jobs and girlfriends ;)
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