Sega Paying Hackers to Fill Security Holes

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
12,070
0
0
Sega Paying Hackers to Fill Security Holes



Perhaps in response to Sony's troubles, Sega is hiring hackers to close possible loopholes in its infrastructure.

Chalk Sega up on the list of companies coming out to support Sony's efforts in dealing with the security breach of the PlayStation Network [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/tag/psn+down] that resulted in the theft of millions of people's personal information. Mike Hayes, head of Sega's European and American divisions, thinks that Sony has done all it could to respond to the attack. Sega is determined to prevent a similar attack, and Hayes is not afraid to work with former criminals to make sure his networks are secure.

"Obviously anti-piracy solutions are key to us and we think its important to develop proprietary ones," Hayes said. "So we are hiring some extremely intelligent people from Eastern Europe that perhaps were previously on the other side of our computer screen, shall we say."

Sega has come under attack before with some of its most important brands. "We've experienced those kind of attacks ourselves on a much lesser scale, particularly for Football Manager a few years ago. We constantly get them and know it severely damages our business," said Hayes. "We won't go into the whys and wherefores, but we know that can happen to anyone in the legitimate sale of intellectual property."

The new "employees" are meant to solve that problem. "They will be working with us in our technical studios to help solve some of those issues," he said. "It's our view that we can use some of that brilliant intellect and technical capability to help consumers enjoy more games legitimately. I think that's quite important."

So while Sega is being proactive in the fight against hacking and piracy, Hayes certainly supports its comrades in the gaming industry. "We have nothing but sympathy for Sony," he said. "It could happen to anyone. We support Sony 100% through the difficult time, which they've handled very well. Sony has communicated extremely well with its publishers, they've taken action and they've led us along each path they've chosen. I don't think they could have done any more."

Except hire hackers to protect their systems before the attack ... that's just badass.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/304071/news/sega-sony-could-do-no-more-over-psn-attack/]

Permalink
 

Kopikatsu

New member
May 27, 2010
4,924
0
0
LordDarkPhantom said:
"Eastern Europe" - I'd rather get Chinese people
Yeah, man. Go for the Koreans. They're really good at that hacking thing.

I wonder where in Eastern Europe he's talking about, though...or how they even found hackers. Put it in the newspaper? "HACKERS WANTED! THIS IS TOTALLY NOT A TRAP!"
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
17,032
0
0
Well, that's not the worse idea in the world.

I say they train an elite hacker squad from birth, though. And make them do it.
 

LordDarkPhantom

New member
Apr 23, 2011
69
0
0
Onyx Oblivion said:
Well, that's not the worse idea in the world.

I say they train an elite hacker squad from birth, though. And make them do it.
They'd start off by learning the alphabet letters in binary.
 

Wireframefool

New member
Mar 20, 2011
75
0
0
Now that's a smart thing to do, fight fire with fire!
Somewhat funny, I had to write an essay and hackers who work for companies to things like this came up at one point.
 

Ilikemilkshake

New member
Jun 7, 2010
1,982
0
0
I've always wondered why other companies in the first place.
Hell i wondered why Sony didnt hire Geohotz and those other guys to fix the loop they found, and find a way to make the otherOS work aswell.
 

Dastardly

Imaginary Friend
Apr 19, 2010
2,420
0
0
Greg Tito said:
Permalink
To catch a thief...

Hell, banks do it. And look what the FBI did with Frank Abagnale (the Catch Me If You Can guy). There's also Bob Arno, a professional (performing) pickpocket that works with police to catch pickpockets (not a former criminal, though).
 

Denamic

New member
Aug 19, 2009
3,804
0
0
To design a secure system, you need to know how to break security measures.
Doing this kind of thing should be par for the course.
 

linkvegeta

New member
Dec 18, 2010
498
0
0
What Sega doesn't realize is that they have not pissed off a bunch of people like Sony did. They would be the last target hacker would go after.
 

MeleeMittens123

New member
Jan 14, 2011
11
0
0
I don't see a problem with Sega hiring hackers as long as they don't turn them in right after having them work for them. I also don't see why they are not hiring college graduates who don't know their system but are now being taught in University how to hack. At least the people I know who go to school with me are itching to try out their new moves... legally.
 

The Rockerfly

New member
Dec 31, 2008
4,649
0
0
Isn't that a stupid idea? No one hacked into it before and they haven't pissed off anyone else so no one had the reason or the knowledge to hack Sega. Now a group of people have the information necessary to getting into Segas security so if they wanted to, this group could sell the information to someone with the interests to hack Sega
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

books, Books, BOOKS
Legacy
Jan 19, 2011
5,498
1
3
Country
United States
LiftYourSkinnyFists said:
LordDarkPhantom said:
"Eastern Europe" - I'd rather get Chinese people
Sorry, but I'd much rather have a team of Russians backing me up.
Seriously, you don't mess with Russians.

OT: Hmm...looks like Sega is not fucking around when it comes to security. Maybe Sony should do the same thing, and then those hackers can have a hacker war!