Sony Website Hacked By the "Lulz Boat"

[Laze]

I'd like to point out amidst all the "WHY WOULD YOU HACK A LEGITIMATE CORPORATION" outcries:

There are very well-loved white-hats who do similar (albeit not quite as malicious) things in order to attract necessary attention to security flaws before they get discovered by the real criminals. Look up Dan Kaminsky for the Ur-example of this.

They go about it in more professional ways, generally, giving the businesses affected a reasonable length of time after the exploit before making the vulnerability public, so that a fix can be implemented or at least started. But they still break in.

There was an especially reminiscent incident posted on Slashdot a while back about a guy who sat in an Internet cafe and got access to Facebook accounts of people in the cafe, logged in as them, and sent them messages basically saying "You have been hacked. Stop sending private data over unsecured connections on public wireless."

I seem to remember Kaminsky stealing Youtube traffic and rerouting it to a fake site or some other publicity stunt like that with his DNS hijacking/spoofing attack.

So yes, the Lulz Boat is almost certainly doing it "for the lulz". That doesn't mean that there wasn't another motive. I'd argue that bringing attention to the vulnerability before, say, someone with a botnet for e-mail spam or identity theft found it, is very much worth the lulz. Assuming that this group doesn't act like typical Anonymous idiots by making the personal information public, that is.

 

[Snow Fire]

I'm glad the hackers had good intentions, this much information could have been sold, but posting the information they took to the public record makes it all worthless now, any related parties will know which accounts were affected. If they would have sold it, how long would it have taken Sony to notice. Someone could have made quite the mess. That aside, Sony is getting a taste of their own medicine, again, for not adequately protecting their users private information. Not looking good for Sony these days.

 

[Vigilantis]

I dont understand, I mean even if they had some top of the line security anti-haxxor crap and it took the hackers years+ to hack it in the end they would still say that Sonys security is hackable (as is everything else) and put them down as if they are garbage would they not? I have no doubt that if these same people put effort in doing the same to other companies such as Microsoft or Nintendo there would be an equal amount of damage and the "message" the same.

I put my faith in them (Sony) because I have yet to be wronged by them, you see before all this shit hit the fan I was pleasantly fine with their services, and still am after they have somewhat recovered.

When Sony gets hit in the balls, so do I.

 

[DaxStrife]

"From a single injection, we accessed everything. Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?"

Why should we put faith in a group of hackers who steal our information "for the lulz?"

 

[killamanhunter]

anyone think that these guys said this:

"0 lol guyz mabee we shud dr0p Sony with 1337 Hax0rz!!111!"

"h4h4 lol!"

Yeah I didn't know I could speak internet that well either

 

[Echo136]

So basically their point is: Dont put your faith in sony because their security is shit, oh ya and we stole your personal information and we want your money so we can do it again. What the fuck.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Ya know, those hackers can drop that noble shit because I'm not buying it. I couldn't give two shits what kind of hacking tactic they used to get access to the info, they still hacked in and were able to get to it. Forgive me for not singing their praises, I'm getting really tired of this and it really needs to stop.

Also, Lulz boat, really? That's the dumbest name I've ever heard, good job gang.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Seriously Sony? Again? How is it that a major corporate power can be hacked to such a high level so many times? I know determined groups can overwhelm sophisticated defenses, but honestly. Did Sony upgrade their cyber security after the PSN catastrophe?

I agree with LulzBoat here. If Sony hasn't heard their lesson yet they deserve to be humiliated by web memes.

Sony redid the PSN and buffed up the security on the gaming side of things. They never mentioned their other departments...probably because they figured noone would bother looking there.

Guess Sony made a mistake on that one...

 

[Bob_F_It]

If I recall correctly, threatening to post someone's personal information to the public and asking for money is called blackmail.

 

[Shadie777]

Well, fuck you LulzSec.
There are other means to showing that Sony has rubbish security. I give a example that was already stated, they can tell them how to improve. But they obviously don't give a shit and are damaging not only the corporation but the customer, its just for the "lulz".
I just hope that Sony gets their shit together, this is getting stupid.

I really wouldn't mind seeing LulzSec getting destroyed in a spectacular manner. Why haven't they been stopped yet?

 

[spasicle]

I dont understand, I mean even if they had some top of the line security anti-haxxor crap and it took the hackers years+ to hack it in the end they would still say that Sonys security is hackable (as is everything else) and put them down as if they are garbage would they not? I have no doubt that if these same people put effort in doing the same to other companies such as Microsoft or Nintendo there would be an equal amount of damage and the "message" the same.

I put my faith in them (Sony) because I have yet to be wronged by them, you see before all this shit hit the fan I was pleasantly fine with their services, and still am after they have somewhat recovered.

When Sony gets hit in the balls, so do I.

But the thing is they've put ZERO effort into security. It's mind boggling to anyone who knows a shred of information on security that Sony is falling prey to these types of attacks. No one is calling Sony out because their system isn't impregnable, no system is impregnable. The problem is Sony hasn't put in place the most basic security measures to protect their user's data.

 

[The Random One]

Yes, because no one would believe Sony is at risk of a large scale attack.

 

[RoBi3.0]

Keep it up Sony Hackers the larger the trail you leave; the easier it will be for you to be found and brought to justice. Your own ambition will be your down fall.

 

[icame]

Might believe they were telling the truth if THEY DIDN'T POST IT ONLINE. Sony is taking such a beating right now...

 

[ciancon]

God a f***ing dammit.

 

[Jumplion]

An SQL injection? Seriously? A fucking SQL injection!?

That's the simplest type of hack in the world, if hacking were burglary, that would be the equivalent of checking if the front door was unlocked. Basically Sony left its front door open after being robbed blind just weeks ago, WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Don't even tell me none of this is Sony's fault, that's bullshit, I've always known it was bullshit, but now there's proof.

Honestly, I wouldn't trust either source of information. The hackers have already allegedly stolen a million bits of info, I doubt they'd be above twisting whatever they can find to suit their needs. Could be the most secure information in the world, and these assholes are making everything up to somehow look like heroes. Likewise, fuck if I know how Sony is handling this, could be shit on shit surrounded by a small fence for all I know. It's shit no matter how you crunch it.

So, is this the new meme now? Internetz get bored of making Friday jokes and decided it was time to have fun hacking Sony?

Sony, just give them Install Other OS back. The PS3 itself is already cracked wide open thanks to the root key getting out, so it can't hurt anything. Give everyone Install Other OS back and go after everyone who has hacked you with everything you can, and maybe other people will get off your nuts.

I dunno. I'm just sick of reading about Sony getting hacked every week.

Is release the Other OS feature back really going to do much at this point? As their name suggests, they're doing this for the "lulz", and even if OtherOS was brought back, I doubt that that is the point of these attacks anymore.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So yes, the Lulz Boat is almost certainly doing it "for the lulz". That doesn't mean that there wasn't another motive. I'd argue that bringing attention to the vulnerability before, say, someone with a botnet for e-mail spam or identity theft found it, is very much worth the lulz. Assuming that this group doesn't act like typical Anonymous idiots by making the personal information public, that is.

According to the article, they posted it online, which is what people seem to be angry with.

 

[MetroidNut]

Their professed motives seem...well, not exactly admirable in my opinion, but at least not dick-ish. But putting all the stolen data out? Even if it's not worth anything now that everybody knows it, they still violated the privacy of a bunch of random users who did nothing wrong.

I guess I've got to give them a little credit, though - asking for donations to steal people's personal information? That takes...[zapp brannigan]chutzpah[/zapp brannigan].

 

[captaincabbage]

Seriously, what is these guys problem? Why do they have to be such assholes?

 

[Marudas]

I really don't get this. "Sony's security is inept! Please pay us money so we can trash your privacy and tear down their walls to show how inept they are, rather than simply telling them and demanding better!"

I mean really, do people set their houses on fire to see how fireproof it is? Do you throw your phone at the ground to test its shock resistance? Why in the world would you steal private information to prove a point. Why not just leave a note there that says "Hey, you should probably get this looked at", rather than being immensely big headed.

If anyone gives them a dollar, they're doing a disservice to their fellow man.

On a side note though: I'm more than tired of the "Sony Wuz Hacked!" crap week after week. You're talking about a massive, branching company, with tons of different internet based service, coming under attack by tons of different hackers. Of course they're going to find faults. That doesn't make what Sony is doing right, but it doesn't make it impressive or useful to consumers either. I'm just glad I don't own a PS3 or any other Sony products (aside from a PS2, from a simpler time).


(Afterthought: I really have a strong desire to have someone test the sturdiness of these hacker's Skull by way of Crowbar, then post their brains on the floor to prove they have flawed craniums, as to so easily be hacked with a large lead pipe.)