PSN DOWN?
- Thread starter LEE-ZILLA 69
- Start date
Hacker group Anonymous is denying claims that members of the group breached PlayStation Network last month in an attempt to steal credit card and personal information of Sony's customers.
Sony said in its letter to the U.S. Congress yesterday that the company discovered a file planted by the intruders on one of its servers called "Anonymous" with the words "We are Legion" - the popular slogan used by the group.
Responding to Sony's letter, Anonymous issued a statement today saying it has never engaged in credit card theft and that they are being framed by a group of "standard online thieves."
The group previously stated it had no involvement with the PlayStation Network outage before Sony knew information was taken, saying "For once we didn't do it."
Anonymous' statement can be read in full below:
Last month, an unknown party managed to break into Sony's servers and acquired millions of customer records including credit card numbers. Insomuch as that this incident occurred in the midst of Anonymous' OpSony, by which participants engaged in several of our standard information war procedures against the corporation and its executives, Sony and other parties have come to blame Anonymous for the heist. Today, in a letter directed to members of Congress involved in an inquiry into the situation, Sony claimed to have discovered a file on its servers, presumably left by the thieves in question, entitled "Anonymous" and containing a fragment of our slogan, "We are Legion." In response, we would like to raise the following points:
1. Anonymous has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft.
2. Many of our corporate and governmental adversaries, on the other hand, have been known to have lied to the public about Anonymous and about their own activities. HBGary, for instance, was caught lying a number of times to the press, to the public, and to Anonymous itself (in this phone call, for instance, ( http://tinyurl.com/68pbdj8) CEO Aaron Barr makes a number of untrue statements regarding the intent of his "research," claiming for instance that he never tried to sell the information to the FBI when e-mails acquired soon showed that he had been set to do just that; executive Karen Burke was also caught lying to Bloomberg about having not seen an incriminating e-mail that she had in fact replied to just a few days before). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lied about not having seen the criminal proposal created by them for Team Themis; Palantir lied about not having any idea what their employees were up to; Berico publicly denounced a plan that they had actively engaged in creating; etc. There is no corporation in existence will choose the truth when lies are more convenient.
3. To the contrary, Anonymous is an ironically transparent movement that allows reporters in to our operating channels to observe us at work and which has been extraordinarily candid with the press when commenting on our own activities, which is why reporters prefer to talk to us for truthful accounts of the situation rather than go to our degenerate enemies to be lied to.
4. Whoever broke into Sony's servers to steal the credit card info and left a document blaming Anonymous clearly wanted Anonymous to be blamed for the most significant digital theft in history. No one who is actually associated with our movement would do something that would prompt a massive law enforcement response. On the other hand, a group of standard online thieves would have every reason to frame Anonymous in order to put law enforcement off the track. The framing of others for crimes has been a common practice throughout history.
5. It should be remembered that several federal contractors such as HBGary and Palantir have been caught planning a variety of unethical and potentially criminal conspiracies by which to discredit the enemies of their clients. This is not a theory – this is a fact that has been reported at great length by dozens of journalists with major publications. Insomuch as that our enemies have either engaged in or planned to engage in false flag efforts, it should not be surprising that many of the journalists who have covered us, who know who we are and what motivates us – and who have alternatively seen the monstrous behavior of those large and "respectable" firms that are all too happy to throw aside common decency at the behest of such clients as Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – also have their suspicions that some capable party performed this operation as a means by which to do great damage to Anonymous in the public eye. Those who consider such a prospect to be somehow unlikely are advised to read about what was proposed by Team Themis in their efforts to destroy Wikileaks, and should otherwise take a few minutes to learn about COINTELPRO and other admitted practices by the U.S. intelligence community. The fact is that Anonymous has brought a great deal of discomfort to powerful entities such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, and much of the federal government; the Justice Department in particular is likely unhappy that our efforts revealed that it was they themselves who recommended the now-discredited "law firm" Hunton & Williams to Bank of America in order that the latter might better be able to fight back against Wikileaks. All of this is now public record, and anyone who finds it laughable that those or other entities may have again engaged in tactics that they are known to have engaged in in the past is not qualified to comment on the situation.
Anonymous will continue its work in support of transparency and individual liberty; our adversaries will continue their work in support of secrecy and control. The FBI will continue to investigate us for crimes of civil disobediance while continuing to ignore the crimes planned by major corporations with which they are in league.
We do not forget, even if others fail to remember. We not forgive, even if others forgive our enemies for those things for which we are attacked. We are legion, and will remain so no matter how many of our participants are raided by armed agents of a broken system.
We are Anonymous.
__________________________________
i believe em yo..i dont know why but i do
Sony said in its letter to the U.S. Congress yesterday that the company discovered a file planted by the intruders on one of its servers called "Anonymous" with the words "We are Legion" - the popular slogan used by the group.
Responding to Sony's letter, Anonymous issued a statement today saying it has never engaged in credit card theft and that they are being framed by a group of "standard online thieves."
The group previously stated it had no involvement with the PlayStation Network outage before Sony knew information was taken, saying "For once we didn't do it."
Anonymous' statement can be read in full below:
Last month, an unknown party managed to break into Sony's servers and acquired millions of customer records including credit card numbers. Insomuch as that this incident occurred in the midst of Anonymous' OpSony, by which participants engaged in several of our standard information war procedures against the corporation and its executives, Sony and other parties have come to blame Anonymous for the heist. Today, in a letter directed to members of Congress involved in an inquiry into the situation, Sony claimed to have discovered a file on its servers, presumably left by the thieves in question, entitled "Anonymous" and containing a fragment of our slogan, "We are Legion." In response, we would like to raise the following points:
1. Anonymous has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft.
2. Many of our corporate and governmental adversaries, on the other hand, have been known to have lied to the public about Anonymous and about their own activities. HBGary, for instance, was caught lying a number of times to the press, to the public, and to Anonymous itself (in this phone call, for instance, ( http://tinyurl.com/68pbdj8) CEO Aaron Barr makes a number of untrue statements regarding the intent of his "research," claiming for instance that he never tried to sell the information to the FBI when e-mails acquired soon showed that he had been set to do just that; executive Karen Burke was also caught lying to Bloomberg about having not seen an incriminating e-mail that she had in fact replied to just a few days before). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lied about not having seen the criminal proposal created by them for Team Themis; Palantir lied about not having any idea what their employees were up to; Berico publicly denounced a plan that they had actively engaged in creating; etc. There is no corporation in existence will choose the truth when lies are more convenient.
3. To the contrary, Anonymous is an ironically transparent movement that allows reporters in to our operating channels to observe us at work and which has been extraordinarily candid with the press when commenting on our own activities, which is why reporters prefer to talk to us for truthful accounts of the situation rather than go to our degenerate enemies to be lied to.
4. Whoever broke into Sony's servers to steal the credit card info and left a document blaming Anonymous clearly wanted Anonymous to be blamed for the most significant digital theft in history. No one who is actually associated with our movement would do something that would prompt a massive law enforcement response. On the other hand, a group of standard online thieves would have every reason to frame Anonymous in order to put law enforcement off the track. The framing of others for crimes has been a common practice throughout history.
5. It should be remembered that several federal contractors such as HBGary and Palantir have been caught planning a variety of unethical and potentially criminal conspiracies by which to discredit the enemies of their clients. This is not a theory – this is a fact that has been reported at great length by dozens of journalists with major publications. Insomuch as that our enemies have either engaged in or planned to engage in false flag efforts, it should not be surprising that many of the journalists who have covered us, who know who we are and what motivates us – and who have alternatively seen the monstrous behavior of those large and "respectable" firms that are all too happy to throw aside common decency at the behest of such clients as Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – also have their suspicions that some capable party performed this operation as a means by which to do great damage to Anonymous in the public eye. Those who consider such a prospect to be somehow unlikely are advised to read about what was proposed by Team Themis in their efforts to destroy Wikileaks, and should otherwise take a few minutes to learn about COINTELPRO and other admitted practices by the U.S. intelligence community. The fact is that Anonymous has brought a great deal of discomfort to powerful entities such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, and much of the federal government; the Justice Department in particular is likely unhappy that our efforts revealed that it was they themselves who recommended the now-discredited "law firm" Hunton & Williams to Bank of America in order that the latter might better be able to fight back against Wikileaks. All of this is now public record, and anyone who finds it laughable that those or other entities may have again engaged in tactics that they are known to have engaged in in the past is not qualified to comment on the situation.
Anonymous will continue its work in support of transparency and individual liberty; our adversaries will continue their work in support of secrecy and control. The FBI will continue to investigate us for crimes of civil disobediance while continuing to ignore the crimes planned by major corporations with which they are in league.
We do not forget, even if others fail to remember. We not forgive, even if others forgive our enemies for those things for which we are attacked. We are legion, and will remain so no matter how many of our participants are raided by armed agents of a broken system.
We are Anonymous.
__________________________________
i believe em yo..i dont know why but i do
This past weekend Sony announced a "welcome back" program to make up for the PSN downtime that's been experienced for more than two weeks now. The particulars were said to be coming "at a local level and further details will be made available shortly in each region." Besides a free year of identity theft protection and a 30-day subscription to PlayStation Plus, Sony Computer Entertainment America still has not indicated what else it will offer. Over in Europe, users will be getting their choice of two (select) games for free.
Europe's PlayStation Blog brings word today that PS3 users will get to choose two free games from a selection of five; PSP users will also get two from a list of four. The particular games weren't mentioned but it'll presumably be smaller PSN games as opposed to a copy of Killzone 3, so don't get too excited. So long as they are something more substantial than the budget-priced Minis, though, it should be a nice bonus assuming you haven't already purchased all of the choices previously.
Keep in mind this is a policy for Europe -- nothing has been announced for North America as of yet. In the case of the PSP Go, Europeans were initially treated to a free copy of Gran Turismo PSP and were were later given a choice of several other games. Buyers of the Go at launch in North America, on the other hand, got a copy of the special "Lite" version of Rock Band Unplugged that came with all of five songs.
We're still waiting for official word on what we'll be getting in North America, as well as when PSN will be brought back online. Just yesterday Sony announced it had reached the final stages of its internal testing and, in a letter to users, CEO Howard Stringer said PSN should be back "in the coming days." We'll believe that when we see it -- PSN was said to be coming back on Tuesday and here we are, three days later, still stuck playing games offline.
Europe's PlayStation Blog brings word today that PS3 users will get to choose two free games from a selection of five; PSP users will also get two from a list of four. The particular games weren't mentioned but it'll presumably be smaller PSN games as opposed to a copy of Killzone 3, so don't get too excited. So long as they are something more substantial than the budget-priced Minis, though, it should be a nice bonus assuming you haven't already purchased all of the choices previously.
Keep in mind this is a policy for Europe -- nothing has been announced for North America as of yet. In the case of the PSP Go, Europeans were initially treated to a free copy of Gran Turismo PSP and were were later given a choice of several other games. Buyers of the Go at launch in North America, on the other hand, got a copy of the special "Lite" version of Rock Band Unplugged that came with all of five songs.
We're still waiting for official word on what we'll be getting in North America, as well as when PSN will be brought back online. Just yesterday Sony announced it had reached the final stages of its internal testing and, in a letter to users, CEO Howard Stringer said PSN should be back "in the coming days." We'll believe that when we see it -- PSN was said to be coming back on Tuesday and here we are, three days later, still stuck playing games offline.
In a letter sent to the US Congress on Wednesday, Sony Corp. executive vice president Kaz Hirai implicated members of the "hacktivist" collective Anonymous in the cyberattack that brought down the PlayStation Network. The following day, the group sent out a press release saying that any inquiry into the matter would prove the organization is innocent in the data breach, which led to the leak of some 77 million PSN users' personal information, as well as that of Sony Online Entertainment's user base.
Despite its protestations to the contrary, Anonymous may have been behind the PSN attack after all.
Now, two individuals claiming to be "veteran" members of Anonymous are singing a different tune. Speaking to the Financial Times, the pair say that the people behind the information theft were almost certainly elements of the collective engaged in an anti-Sony crusade dubbed "OpSony."
"The hacker that did this was supporting OpSony's movements," one unnamed Anonymous member told the Times.
"Kayla," another member, went even further, saying, "If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it. Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn't mean Anonymous didn't do it."
OpSony began in early April as a response to Sony's legal action against PlayStation 3 hacker George "GeoHot" Hotz. Anonymous then engaged in a series of denial-of-service attacks on a variety of Sony sites, leading to some instability.
Some 11 days later, the PlayStation Network suffered a data breach between April 17 and 19, which led to Sony taking the online service offline. In a press release several days later, Anonymous denied the organization had sanctioned the attacks.
As of Friday, the PSN remained down, although Sony said Thursday it is engaged in "final testing" for it to resume operations soon.
Despite its protestations to the contrary, Anonymous may have been behind the PSN attack after all.
Now, two individuals claiming to be "veteran" members of Anonymous are singing a different tune. Speaking to the Financial Times, the pair say that the people behind the information theft were almost certainly elements of the collective engaged in an anti-Sony crusade dubbed "OpSony."
"The hacker that did this was supporting OpSony's movements," one unnamed Anonymous member told the Times.
"Kayla," another member, went even further, saying, "If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it. Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn't mean Anonymous didn't do it."
OpSony began in early April as a response to Sony's legal action against PlayStation 3 hacker George "GeoHot" Hotz. Anonymous then engaged in a series of denial-of-service attacks on a variety of Sony sites, leading to some instability.
Some 11 days later, the PlayStation Network suffered a data breach between April 17 and 19, which led to Sony taking the online service offline. In a press release several days later, Anonymous denied the organization had sanctioned the attacks.
As of Friday, the PSN remained down, although Sony said Thursday it is engaged in "final testing" for it to resume operations soon.
As you may know, we?ve begun the process of restoring the service through internal testing of the new system. We?re still working to confirm the security of the network infrastructure, as well as working with a variety of outside entities to confirm with them of the security of the system. Verifying the system security is vital for the process of restoration. Additional comprehensive system checks and testing are still required, and we must complete that process before bringing the systems online.
As you?ve heard us say, our utmost priorities are the security of the network and ensuring your data is safe. We won?t restore the services until we can test the system?s strength in these respects.
When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week. We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system. We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we?re doing everything we can to make it happen. We will update you with more information as soon as we have it. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage.
may 6 official playstation blog
As you?ve heard us say, our utmost priorities are the security of the network and ensuring your data is safe. We won?t restore the services until we can test the system?s strength in these respects.
When we held the press conference in Japan last week, based on what we knew, we expected to have the services online within a week. We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system. We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we?re doing everything we can to make it happen. We will update you with more information as soon as we have it. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage.
may 6 official playstation blog
