Gearbox Head Blasts "Evil" PSN Hackers

[lastjustice]

In year people will forgive Sony for this....We still won't have forgiven Nintento for Another M heh.

 

[poiuppx]

The hackers are not evil, but very foolish.

No, I'd argue that deliberately breaking into the system and stealing the names, addresses, passwords, and financial information of over 70 mil. accounts in one system and about 25 mil. in another counts as evil, malicious, and worthy of at the very least execution. But hey, we're each entitled to our own opinions.

 

[poiuppx]

So, putting the financial well being of millions of consumers at tremendous risk isn't an act of terrorism? You're joking, right?

No, it's crime. If someone broke into, say, Bank of America and stole money from millions of accounts, would you call it terrorism? No, it's theft - on a huge scale, yes, but it's still not terrorism. Terrorism is means to an end; from what we can tell this attack was the means and end itself.

It would be like terrorism if, say, they kept breaking in and stealing bits and pieces of user data - a few thousand here, a few thousand there - in an intentional campaign to break the public trust with Sony and drive customers away from PSN lest their data be compromised. That would be cyber-terrorism. This is just cyber-theft.

Hate to butt in and disagree, but the fact they hit both the PSN and SOE, two seperate systems belonging to the same company, implies to me at the least there was some malicious intent directed towards the company specifically. A hack of this magnitude, by its very nature, calls into question and negatively impacts the company, as well as disrupting the lives of those hit by the fallout (developers, publishers, gamers, etc.). It causes fear and confusion and disorder, and makes people act and think in ways they wouldn't have previously. It may not involve car bombs and religious ideologies, but it damn sure wears the general cap of terrorism quite nicely.

 

[42]

Im with Pitchford on this. Sony has taken quite a lot of flak for the mostly the loss of information, but no one's else has taken time to criticise the people behind it (mainly because they dont know who). maybe we should send Duke to find out.

 

[Whoracle]

Im with Pitchford on this. Sony has taken quite a lot of flak for the mostly the loss of information, but no one's else has taken time to criticise the people behind it (mainly because they dont know who). maybe we should send Duke to find out.

Well, when you break it down like this, what is there to criticize the hackers for?
"You are criminal fucks and what you did was a crime. A serious crime." - That's about all that can be said to them before they walk off into jail somewhen.
Crimes can't be criticized, since it's bad by its very nature. Crimes can be punished, they can be atoned for, but to criticize a criminal is redundant.

Sony did what it did with no ill intent (at least I think so), so their course of action is criticizable. Until someone proves that they did it on purpose, then they'll be punishable.

 

[42]

Im with Pitchford on this. Sony has taken quite a lot of flak for the mostly the loss of information, but no one's else has taken time to criticise the people behind it (mainly because they dont know who). maybe we should send Duke to find out.

Well, when you break it down like this, what is there to criticize the hackers for?
"You are criminal fucks and what you did was a crime. A serious crime." - That's about all that can be said to them before they walk off into jail somewhen.
Crimes can't be criticized, since it's bad by its very nature. Crimes can be punished, they can be atoned for, but to criticize a criminal is redundant.

Sony did what it did with no ill intent (at least I think so), so their course of action is criticizable. Until someone proves that they did it on purpose, then they'll be punishable.

No what would be redundant is to criticize a criminal that's paid for it ie. served time in prison etc
the only thing sony can be blamed for is not having a strong enough security for their network. other than that the rest is on the hackers i mean come on, i would blame it ALL on the hackers as they have not only stolen infomation theyve also denied access to a service that everyone uses. While what they did was against the law it was also a dick move. and believe me IT WAS A DICK MOVE.

 

[the D0rk One]

Hah!

Cyber-terrorists. More like nerd rage on a huge scale imo.

And Sony playing the victim? Well, sometimes a God complex will reach around and bite you right up the ass.

 

[No_Remainders]

The amount of hyperbole in his statement is actually obscene.

Terrorism? Not really.

 

[Sharalon]

I don't really know how you can get more cyber-terrorismier than this..

 

[Whoracle]

No what would be redundant is to criticize a criminal that's paid for it ie. served time in prison etc
the only thing sony can be blamed for is not having a strong enough security for their network. other than that the rest is on the hackers i mean come on, i would blame it ALL on the hackers as they have not only stolen infomation theyve also denied access to a service that everyone uses. While what they did was against the law it was also a dick move. and believe me IT WAS A DICK MOVE.

Oh, it was a dick move, I'm not going to argue that. What get's on my tits is that Sony and their supporters want Sony to walk away scott free.

I don't really know how you can get more cyber-terrorismier than this..

- Breaking into public transport servers and rerouting subways (may lead to crashes)
- Breaking into weather watch servers and disabling/hoaxing storm warnings.
- Hacking earthquake monitoring servers
- Hacking the servers for electrical power distribution
- Hacking the software for nuclear power plants. Stuxnet, anyone?

And that's just from the top of my head.

Saying that downing PSN is the highest (or any, really) form of cyberterrorism let's me assume you either have no knowledge of how ubiquitous IT systems have become, have not enough fantasy, or are not paranoid enough. Please prove me wrong.

 

[Thimblefoot]

Sony do deserve criticism, just like the hackers do, this should have never have been so severe for a huge company like Sony, and the hackers are just douchebags.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Even if you didn't have a credit card stolen. The contact information of millions of minors are now in the hands of strangers for purposes unknown. I'd say terrorist is an appropriate word.

Kudos to Randy Pitchford for standing up for Sony. This whole thing is a huge setback to the entire gaming community and too many of us are acting like whiny entitled brats over it. I probably shouldn't be surprised by this but if there was ever a time for gamers to not be petty then it's now.

 

[Sick43]

Sony is as much to blame as the hackers they're a multi-billion dollar corporation who's security should of been up to the task of not only locking out intruders but more importantly protecting the users sensitive information, and yes the hackers should be hunted down and locked up for the better portion of they're lives but what they did was found a weak spot in Sony's security that Sony should have already been aware of, so Sony is as much to blame as the hackers and deserve every dollar they lose during this down time

 

[Insanity72]

*Hugs for Sony*

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I agree and I've never pointed finger at Sony, I merely wanted hackers dead. For the greater good.

Spoiler: Video with Hot Fuzz spoilers

On-topic, I do blame the hackers who did this. Attacking user info on PSN was just not right. But giving Sony a pat on the back and saying "there, there" is not all right, either. Sony had poor security, and the fact that PSN has been down almost a month with no date on when it will be back up is not a good sign, either. Think of it like this. If a museum was broken into, the thief was in the wrong, to be sure. But would you give the museum a pass if it was only using one security guard, then decided to itshut down for a month to "restructure its security"?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

POSTY!

 

[JDKJ]

So, putting the financial well being of millions of consumers at tremendous risk isn't an act of terrorism? You're joking, right?

No, it's crime. If someone broke into, say, Bank of America and stole money from millions of accounts, would you call it terrorism? No, it's theft - on a huge scale, yes, but it's still not terrorism. Terrorism is means to an end; from what we can tell this attack was the means and end itself.

It would be like terrorism if, say, they kept breaking in and stealing bits and pieces of user data - a few thousand here, a few thousand there - in an intentional campaign to break the public trust with Sony and drive customers away from PSN lest their data be compromised. That would be cyber-terrorism. This is just cyber-theft.

I fear you may be assuming facts that haven't yet been established beyond all doubt and are actually still up for grabs. There is a lurking possibility that a splinter group of Anonymous did precisely what you say would satisfy the definition of "terrorism." That is, they targeted Sony and it's customer data not for pure financial gain but, rather, to make some political point. If so, the theft of the data isn't the end. Rather, it is the means to the end and is therefore, given your own definition, an act of "terrorism."

 

[Project_Xii]

Cyber terrorism. Yeah, I'd agree with that. When an attack can cause such wide scale fallout as to affect the whole world in one way or the other, that sounds like terrorism to me. Frankly if whoever was responsible for it all's head exploded all over his ceiling, the only pity I'd have is for the cleaning lady who had to take care of it.

Also got to love the completely unbiased and well thought out "journalism" that goes on in the Escapist. I smell a Fox News anchor in the making.

 

[tomvw]

On-topic, I do blame the hackers who did this. Attacking user info on PSN was just not right. But giving Sony a pat on the back and saying "there, there" is not all right, either. Sony had poor security, and the fact that PSN has been down almost a month with no date on when it will be back up is not a good sign, either. Think of it like this. If a museum was broken into, the thief was in the wrong, to be sure. But would you give the museum a pass if it was only using one security guard, then decided to shut down for a month to "restructure its security"?

I completely agree, Sony's response to the hack was inadequate and slow, and the fact that PSN is still down only reinforces that notion. Putting all the blame on Sony is a mistake, but that doesn't mean we should let them of the hook.
Anyway, if you want an example of how to properly handle a hack, look at LastPass, these guys almost immediately responded to suspicious activity on their servers and notified the users. They've been very forthcoming about what happened and what they were doing about it.

 

[awesome_ninja]

Sony is the one to blame partially too... If they would of had better security, none of this non-sense would of happened... And it's their fault that they pissed off the customers by removing OtherOS. So I support the hackers on this whole event, and shame of you Sony... "Come get some!"