Hacker group halts Sony attacks

The hacker group "Anonymous" has announced it has ceased its cyber attacks on the PlayStation Network, and apologized for inconveniencing PSN users.

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The hacker group "Anonymous" announced it has ceased its cyber attacks on the PlayStation Network, and apologized for inconveniencing users, in a post on AnonNews. "We realize that targeting the PSN is not a good idea," the post read. "We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers."

The group argues that it's on the side of the customers, and only aiming at Sony. "If we did inconvenience users, please know that this was not our goal," it says. "This operation is a response to Sony's attempt to deprive their customers of products they bought and therefore own, wholly and completely. Anonymous will not attempt to fight this by following the exact same course of action."

Sony Web sites and the PlayStation Network have seen intermittent outages over the last few days. Sony's official statement on the matter was that the PSN was undergoing maintenance, though it later acknowledged "the possibility of targeted behavior of an outside party."

The "hacktivist" group initially started targeting Sony in retaliation for pursuing legal action against PlayStation 3 hackers (or reverse engineers) George Hotz (aka "GeoHot") and Graf_Chokolo. The PS3 jailbreak method they found led to easier entry for pirates, and Sony took legal action.

We've contacted Sony regarding this new development, and will update as information becomes available.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 7, 2011 12:15 PM

    Comment on Hacker group halts Sony attacks, by Steve Watts.

    • reply
      April 7, 2011 12:17 PM

      Summary: The hacker group "Anonymous" has announced it has ceased its cyber attacks on the PlayStation Network, and apologized for inconveniencing PSN users.

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      April 7, 2011 12:18 PM

      lol "Group". It ain't a group, don't let the person fool you.

      • reply
        April 7, 2011 12:28 PM

        [deleted]

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          April 7, 2011 12:59 PM

          Unfortunately, people don't realize that it is a small handful of people that do this and use 'Anonymous' and 'Legion' as a blanket term to encompass everyone on the site except that 99% of the people there don't care or have nothing to do with it and most don't like it. It's silly, is what it is.

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      April 7, 2011 12:31 PM

      now someone else who will also speak for anonymous (because how can you determine who really speaks for it) will start it up again, saying that the halt was by someone who didn't speak for anonymous

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        April 7, 2011 12:58 PM

        I'm Spartacus!

        Erm, I mean....

        I'm Anonymous!

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      April 7, 2011 12:59 PM

      The action that "Anonymous" took was vindictive and exhibited the maturity of a child. Rather than thinking about the people that would be affected by their (or his or her) actions, they only wanted to act on their belief that rules do not apply to them and the they are entitled to do what they want with anything they want.

      Console manufacturers have the right, as despicable as I think it is, to operate their products as they see fit and we as consumers have the right to not purchase or use their products. Stop using the PS3, don't buy DLC, encourage people to stop purchasing and other ways to get the message out. If you want to go rogue then accept the consequences of your actions and don't force them on the rest of us who are not affected by this pissing match. If this is all about choice and freedom to use things, why make the rest of us suffer for your crusade?

      I am ashamed to be a gamer and have myself categorized with a group/person that thinks they are above the law only for the sake of self gratification. If this was about the unfair treatment of a section of people, the abuse of government or something that affects everyone regardless of wishes then I would say, "More power to Anonymous." However this is an entertainment device and the hackers or hacker has displayed not only a childish press release but a childish reaction.

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        April 7, 2011 1:46 PM

        Agreed.. Although I think it's complete rubbish that consumers are stripped of features that SHOULD be left as they are if they use them frequently enough i.e Linux.

        I can see where "Anonymous" is coming from in some aspects but then the way they go about it is over the top and extremely immature. Why make the consumer suffer when it is not them but Sony they are targeting?

        I can't see the actions "Anonymous" are taking actually getting them anywhere anyway.

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        April 7, 2011 2:41 PM

        The question then is, "Is it actually illegal to install a 3rd party operating system" or whatever. In regards to the i-devices, the court ruled that Apple was out of line in saying that consumers couldn't jailbreak their iPhone and take them to Verizon or Virgin or any other mobile carrier. So you can rant against these "immature" people, but I want to know if they have a legal right or precedence to win this.

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          April 7, 2011 2:45 PM

          Why doesn't someone submit consoles as a possible exception at the next scheduled DMCA review?

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          April 7, 2011 3:18 PM

          I think the point (if Anon has one) is that whether or not they *DO* have the legal right to do this, they feel that anyone and everyone *SHOULD* have the legal right to do this.

          I tend to agree with them.

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          April 7, 2011 4:24 PM

          It is a valid point C, but I wasn't calling the people immature. I said that the action they took was immature.

          I am of the opinion that if you buy a piece of hardware, you should be able to do with it what you want. However, as you yourself just stated that Apple was told that people are allowed to "jail break" their phones. When people do that they suffer the loss of standard Apple features and what not so that is a choice they make. You can't have your cake and eat it to.

          For SONY if you want to jail break the PS3 then that is fine, you should be allowed to do it but you have the accept the consequences of it. You have to separate the hardware from the software. If you treat the PS3 like a computer you buy from the store then you are at the mercy of the OS you choose to install as far as features, etc. With the PS3 you have the option to update the firmware/OS to play with the PSN. If you don't then you cant use the PSN in the same way people who jail break their iPhone can't use the AppStore anymore (I have not jail broken my iPhone as I do not have one so feel free to correct me on that ).

          This is a matter for the courts to determine if the consumer has the legal right to do what they want with the hardware. If they want to use it how they want, more power to them. But if they want to have it so they can use it as SONY plans then they have to play buy their rules to use the software. So either buy a 2nd PS3 for the express purpose of jail breaking it or take your chances on the PSN.

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            April 7, 2011 5:58 PM

            Jailbreaking yoru Iphone or Ipod Touch does not restrict your access to the appstore. Jailbreaking also doesn't allow you to download paid apps for free.

            I think the point you are trying to make is good. Sony did the right thing by restricting users from PSN who did not update their PS3 so that they could continue to run OtherOs. While I disagree with Sony removing the software from the system it is my understanding that they did so for good reasons.

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              April 8, 2011 11:41 AM

              Thanks Vector for clearing that up. I despise AT&T so I never got an iPhone. Thanks for educating me. :-)

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        April 7, 2011 3:26 PM

        Well said!

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      April 7, 2011 3:17 PM

      Most of the time I support they're doings. Course involving others was a mistake though. We'll start to see more groups like this I think.

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      April 7, 2011 5:12 PM

      Most likely, Sony realized they couldn't stop the attacks and then heard a story about the Libyan dictator using civilians to protect military targets from airstrikes. Inspiration struck and they moved some of the game servers over to the same IP's as the non-PSN game servers and suddenly they can make Anonymous into the bad guy.

      Clever. Using a bloodthirsty dictator's strategy. I wonder what role that puts Anonymous into?

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      April 7, 2011 5:25 PM

      Please everyone STFU about your thoughts on being able to do whatever you want on your ps3 because
      you can't get over it...

      Xx9fFxX (anon) will always be in the wrong and that's that... Jailbreak = piracy that's that...

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      April 7, 2011 6:00 PM

      Just in case anyone was wondering if this was just attention seeking, now they know for sure. DIAF self righteous nerd.

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      April 7, 2011 6:33 PM

      Im guessing someone got to them, so to speak. Maybe some threatened legal action.

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        April 7, 2011 6:37 PM

        I'd put money on one guy didn't feel comfortable with it and announced the halt on his own

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      April 7, 2011 7:09 PM

      angry gamers hopefully will counter-hack and DDoS anonymous

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      April 8, 2011 1:47 AM

      I don't know why someone would do this when this case is already pending, it just makes geowhatever look like an idiot and hurts his defense even more.

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      April 8, 2011 1:59 AM

      Everyone knows why they are doing this. Because they want psn access while also keeping thier ps3 hacked so they can keep playing their pirated games. Not for linux. Linux is terrible on the ps3... it only has 256mb of ram and no access to its video processing power. no one would want to use a computer like that for any sort of normal use.

      The whole "screw sony" movement in the ps3 hacking community is absolutely retarded and baseless. Sony isn't trying to sue everyone just the hackers that originally hacked the thing. Sony gave them plenty of warning and if they were smart they would have just released the stuff anonymously... but they didn't they wanted to become "famous". Idiots...

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      April 8, 2011 7:32 AM

      Everyone was like fuck the man "YAAY!" then it was like I can't pwn nubs online "BOOO!"
      I was like, that's where I played Red Dead with other folks for twenty minutes last year right?

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