Hacker group halts Sony attacks

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.