Gearbox Head Blasts "Evil" PSN Hackers

[Fearzone]

It is best not to look at these things in simple black and white.

Yes, Sony has my support and I hope a better network comes of this. But anyone who had Linux installed on their PS3 and now can't, at least not legally, they have my sympathy.

 

[Daveman]

So Sony baked you a lovely pie and left it on the windowsill to cool. Then some hackers come and steal the pie. Then your natural response is to bitchslap Sony for leaving the pie on the windowsill. You don't care about the fact that somebody stole your pie because you don't know who did it so it's hard to blame them, so you just take all your rage out on Sony.

Domestic abuse... always fun to joke about.

But yeah, sure Sony has pissed off some people and sure their security wasn't perfect but surely you guys remember that story of that one British guy who hacked the fucking PENTAGON for kicks, hardly anything is impenetrable. It's annoying but tbh they're suffering just as much as you are and they've already agreed to reimburse anyone whose financial details are used. What more do you want from them?

(Hacking the Pentagon - http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/07/mckinnon/ )

 

[BDNeon]

They are threatening and attacking anyone who doesn't agree with their anti-captalism anti-personal rights way of life. They use threats to accomplish their goals, such as by threatening to attack or release personal information.

If that's not terrorism I don't know what is.

And regarding Linux, it still amazes me how ignorant people are on the subject. You've always been able to install linux on the old PS3's. They just removed your ability to do it on current firmware. The whiners are complaining because Sony wont let them access a secure network with a compromised platform, and for damn good reason.

 

[Axelhander]

I'm not entirely sure I agree with calling it cyber-terrorism, to be honest. That devalues the very real threat of real-world terrorism, and it's hard to compare not being able to play videogames online for a few weeks to fearing for your very life - even if publishers and developers have seen some fiscal troubles.

Is it criminal? Absolutely. But "terrorism" seems a bit much.

This part of the post was not required and is rather "Kotaku-esque." This bit of news didn't require your two cents.

 

[DustyDrB]

This isn't a black and white, either/or situation.
You can be angry at both the hackers and Sony. I blame the hackers way more of course, but I'm not with the people who wants to give Sony a hug for comfort. I sympathize with them, but I'm still angry (yes! It's OK to have mixed feelings). Security failures on this scale do not happen. And I'm not really even that angry on the behalf of gamers. Publishers and developers are the ones who are being hit hardest by this, from big companies like Capcom to smaller ones like Aksys.

 

[Roboto]

Sorry Randy but the last thing you're going to get from the customers you constantly screw up the wallet is a hug.

 

[Whoracle]

No one is arguing that Sony dropped the ball, but if you go to the website they have promised that they are giving complimentary Identity Protection services and help to psn members as compensation in the from of free Playstation plus/qrocity services for 1 month plus however long the network is down. This is them saying OK we're sorry, now we'll fix it and here's something for the inconvenience. As long as them admit guilt and cover for any losses due to this issue I feel that they should be forgiven for their mistakes.

Oh, sure, it's nice that they promise to better themselves, abd they shouldn't be sued from here to no tomorrow for being the victim of a crime, but, and that's what bugs me, the gearbox guy seems to want all the people to forgive Sony and put no blame at their feet. At least that's how it comes across to me.

And I believe their promise to better themselves in terms of data security when they have implemented said better security and have had a complete audit of the system by independent experts that go on record and say: "This time, they've done everything possible."

After all, they promised to keep your data secure when you first gave it to them, so another promise of "yeah, this time, for real" does not hold much water, for me at least.

And as for the gearbox guys motives: Gearbox has games on the PS3, right? Ones that use PSN? (I really don't know...) So if that's true, well, he's loosing sales for every customer that drops off Sonys monolith, so there's one motivation.

Another one is liability shift for DRM-caused catastrophes. After all, when the next DRM fiasco hits, one can always blame someone else and point to the Sony case and say: "Hey, we're the victim here. If everything went as we wished it, our system would have been perfect."

Granted, that works only for f***ups that weren't self-inflicted, but still.

See the flak Capcom is currently getting for their Always-On-DRM in the aftermath of the PSN desaster.

Also:

So Sony baked you a lovely pie and left it on the windowsill to cool. Then some hackers come and steal the pie. Then your natural response is to bitchslap Sony for leaving the pie on the windowsill. You don't care about the fact that somebody stole your pie because you don't know who did it so it's hard to blame them, so you just take all your rage out on Sony.

Well, if all of your neighbors' pies got stolen during the last weeks, you'd get RIGHTLY blamed for not at least have an eye on the pie, wouldn't you?
In a perfect world, noone would steal, so nothing would have to be guarded. But it's more than common knowledge that we don't live in such a world, and a lapse in security coming from the same guys that have a fear of theft that is borderline paranoid at times is rather hypocritical, isn't it?

But yeah, sure Sony has pissed off some people and sure their security wasn't perfect but surely you guys remember that story of that one British guy who hacked the fucking PENTAGON for kicks, hardly anything is impenetrable. It's annoying but tbh they're suffering just as much as you are and they've already agreed to reimburse anyone whose financial details are used. What more do you want from them?

And that's exactly what I mean. One single guy can hack the pentagon. And this is commonly known. Then WHY hasn't Sony protected the data better? Granted, nothing is safe, but one can at least make the best effort to approximate absolute safety that is possible. Which Sony clearly did not do.

(Quick aside: I damn sure hope someone other than Sony is the next victim, with comparable circumstances, so it doesn't seem that I harp on Sony that much. But being an IT professional it bugs me every day when I see security sacrificed for money. And it happens all too often...)

 

[Kimarous]

I'm not entirely sure I agree with calling it cyber-terrorism, to be honest. That devalues the very real threat of real-world terrorism, and it's hard to compare not being able to play videogames online for a few weeks to fearing for your very life - even if publishers and developers have seen some fiscal troubles.

Uh, no. People have been less upset about their inability to play online and more worried about the safety of their credit card information. If you seriously think that a whole bunch of people threatened to leave PS3 altogether just because of a few weeks of down time?

I heard one person define terrorism as "an attack on non-military targets in an effort to damage peoples' faith in a higher authority" (or something to that extent). Is that not what happened with the PSN attack? They went straight for the personal information and caused people to lose faith in Sony as a result, even if they don't use that information. That IS terrorism.

 

[MysticToast]

Glad to see someone in the industry agrees with me ( and apparently quite a few Escapist members too )

I never once pointed a finger in blame at Sony because of this. They didn't "lose my money/personal information", they got hacked. Why can't some people get that through their heads?

 

[beema]

How about we blame both? Why does one side have to be blameless and the other demonized? It's not a black & white issue going in either direction.
Sony certainly does not deserve our "hugs," and yes we should be hunting down the hackers who did this and burning them at the stake as well.

 

[Whoracle]

How about we blame both? Why does one side have to be blameless and the other demonized? It's not a black & white issue going in either direction.
Sony certainly does not deserve our "hugs," and yes we should be hunting down the hackers who did this and burning them at the stake as well.

Thank you for providing a way less wordy version of my posts than I ever could

 

[John Funk]

I'm not entirely sure I agree with calling it cyber-terrorism, to be honest. That devalues the very real threat of real-world terrorism, and it's hard to compare not being able to play videogames online for a few weeks to fearing for your very life - even if publishers and developers have seen some fiscal troubles.

Is it criminal? Absolutely. But "terrorism" seems a bit much.

This part of the post was not required and is rather "Kotaku-esque." This bit of news didn't require your two cents.

Thanks for your input, but we exist as news writers specifically to inject our two cents into matters.

 

[John Funk]

I'm not entirely sure I agree with calling it cyber-terrorism, to be honest. That devalues the very real threat of real-world terrorism, and it's hard to compare not being able to play videogames online for a few weeks to fearing for your very life - even if publishers and developers have seen some fiscal troubles.

Uh, no. People have been less upset about their inability to play online and more worried about the safety of their credit card information. If you seriously think that a whole bunch of people threatened to leave PS3 altogether just because of a few weeks of down time?

I heard one person define terrorism as "an attack on non-military targets in an effort to damage peoples' faith in a higher authority" (or something to that extent). Is that not what happened with the PSN attack? They went straight for the personal information and caused people to lose faith in Sony as a result, even if they don't use that information. That IS terrorism.

By that logic, every crime is terrorism. What the hackers did is the equivalent of breaking into a bank and stealing information instead of money. It's crime, but not systematic terrorism.

 

[icame]

This guy is seriously becoming my favorite person in the gaming world. I <3 Gearbox.

 

[Mr.Petey]

How about we blame both? Why does one side have to be blameless and the other demonized? It's not a black & white issue going in either direction.
Sony certainly does not deserve our "hugs," and yes we should be hunting down the hackers who did this and burning them at the stake as well.

Generally the reason why we don't is that we cant spend forever gauging all the shades of grey and debating who was to blame. That's time I'd rather not spend and in fact focus my support on Sony. It isn't easy being a high profile company that's been essentially robbed and it happens to many other companies also.

Finger pointing may be one of the easiest things to do in life (and can often be misguided) but in this case it is fairly clear cut that these scum have no right of defence for their crimes.
You hack into a system and access private information, ergo you will be subject to the law and the vilification of the "pitchforks and torches" of the people

 

[Whoracle]

Finger pointing may be one of the easiest things to do in life (and can often be misguided) but in this case it is fairly clear cut that these scum have no right of defence for their crimes.
You hack into a system and access private information, ergo you will be subject to the law and the vilification of the "pitchforks and torches" of the people

I see noone absolving the criminals of their deeds. At least not in this thread.
For the "but" see my earlier posts. Someone who does not care about doing the tasks they have been given/taken on themselves (guarding the data) properly does not deserve hate, but he does not deserve support either, or else he'll never do his work properly.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Cyber-terrorism, huh, that WAAAY too fitting.

I really hope Sony fixes this issue and stomp out these terrorists, I REALLY want to try out the new inFAMOUS 2 beta!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

That's the first remark regarding this whole mess that I agree with. I honestly think that, if everyone rallied behind Sony and started looking for these hackers, they'd be in prison by now. Or dead. Either works for me.

 

[Mr.Petey]

Finger pointing may be one of the easiest things to do in life (and can often be misguided) but in this case it is fairly clear cut that these scum have no right of defence for their crimes.
You hack into a system and access private information, ergo you will be subject to the law and the vilification of the "pitchforks and torches" of the people

I see noone absolving the criminals of their deeds. At least not in this thread.
For the "but" see my earlier posts. Someone who does not care about doing the tasks they have been given/taken on themselves (guarding the data) properly does not deserve hate, but he does not deserve support either, or else he'll never do his work properly.

That's a given yeah, there are individuals who are responsible for the holes in security (though I don't know the full details of the lapse myself) and they should have done a better job.
I won't debate that either but I mean support on a larger scale as some idiots are just pointing and scoffing at Sony on the whole, which is generalisation and hatred that'll help no one person in the near future. Some people have more sense than money and are trading in their PS3 systems etc. but that's their choice, daft but what can you do?

Up until this point, I've had no real issue with any of their services and products but I saying I too won't demonise them because of one major slip up that they've done tirelessly to repair these last few weeks.
But a company that has such lapses in security and does next to nothing to help itself and it's members? Pass

 

[Baresark]

Holy shit.... let's throw the word terrorism around some more!

These people don't seem to understand what terrorism actually is. They think every little thing that upsets people is terrorism.

Dictionary.com

Terrorism?

noun

1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

I love how people think the definition for terrorism is open, though it has had a very real definition for a long time now. To assume it has an open ended meaning is to celebrate ignorance in language.

It's NOT Cyber-terrorism. tt hasn't endangered lives or left people in a state of utter fear.

PS. Not putting private information on the web isn't fear, by most accounts, it's just cautious and smart.

PPS. I agree with John Funk on this 100%.