Anonymous Denies Involvement in PSN Data Theft
Amidst the fallout from the PlayStation Network hack, Sony claimed yesterday that the Internet vigilante group Anonymous was responsible for the attack. But today the well-known hacktivist group denied any involvement in the theft of credit card numbers. The statement is carefully worded, though. Could there be more to this?
“If a legitimate and honest investigation into credit card theft is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable,” Anonymous said in a statement. Sony's evidence is a file left on the server with the label 'Anonymous' and part of the group's slogan, "we are legion". Anonymous has usually shied away from direct theft of data, preferring to utilize DDoS attacks to simply overload servers belonging to their intended victim.
The PSN intrusion on April 19th exposed the personal details of over 77 million users. Then a separate break-in resulted in gaming accounts from station.com being ripped off. That added nearly 25 million accounts to the tally. Anonymous does readily admit they are a decentralized group, but the "leadership" does not condone credit card theft. It's possible Anon worries that associates of the organization perpetrated the act, and are distancing themselves should they be caught. What do you think?
Comments
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nicolemorrison
August 10, 2011 at 10:43am
I think it rather irresponsible that Sony would not warn their customers of the potential threat! Identity theft is a huge deal and it's very upsetting that such a well-known company would not think it necessary to alert people. Just like people invest in home security systems to protect their house, these companies need to invest in high quality online security!! If any of you reading this were personally affected by this, please make sure to talk to the company and make sure they work on better securing their network!
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Otaku16
May 05, 2011 at 10:16pm
i agree.. or it could be some other group leaving misinformation to keep them off their trail.. but really people can speculate all they want..
and as far as making them mad... so what? To fear something is to give it power...
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docowskey
May 05, 2011 at 3:49pm
First of all, i've been following this story from the moment i couldnt log into one of SOE's game a few days ago. I even read the entire letter sony sent to the senate. Nowhere in that letter did they say that Annonamous was actualy responsable. What they actualy said was, they had evidence that it was them, and then they went on to explain what the evidence was that pointed toward annonamous. Anyone can make a file called annanomous, then put the words we are legion inside of it somewhere. Cosidering the number of cunsultants, including the fbi, i highly doubt they would consider that one file as the only evidence. Sony also was very clear on the point that weather annonamous was aware of it at the time or not, the ddos atack helped a great deal with the heist by distracting the security team.
I know i'm getting a little off topic now, but i would love to know where the information is coming from that sony's security was outdated, and even non existent in certain areas. I've seen alot, and i mean ALOT of bitching and moaning about sony being neglagent in their security practices...but i have not yet seen a single place that says where that information actualy came from. Anyone can write anything, and put it on the internet, and as long as it sounds accurate, a more legitamite news agency might read it, and take it as fact. if someone could just please post something about where that info is coming from, i would be very greatfull, because from what i've read from sony, this was not some random hacker finding a security hole, it was well planned, and expertly executed. Oh, and who's to say the rest of the internet isnt just as unsecured as sony may or may not have been? I cant wait to hear the actual results of the investigation.
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illusionslayer
May 06, 2011 at 1:59pm
He's obviously using IE or cba to right click words with red lines under them. Either way leave him al-err-Bash on him more.
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TommM
May 05, 2011 at 3:37pm
It's one of those "wouldn't surprise me if members of Anonymous did it, and wouldn't surprise me if they didn't." But their hatred for Sony and support of George Hotz is well known.
So if I were a betting man....
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HeartBurnKid
May 05, 2011 at 3:25pm
By its very nature, anybody who claims to speak for Anonymous, doesn't.
While I have no doubt that these particular Anons weren't involved in the hack, that does not mean no Anons were.
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whathuhitwasntme
May 05, 2011 at 2:58pm
Honestly,
consider, if you accuse ANONYMOUS and they really didnt do it, you will annoy them. Remember what happened to the last people that annoyed them? I'm just saying, you may want to seriously consider doing some homework on actually finding the real culprits. Even if it ends up being them, at least you would have proof then other than something the slackers at Sony provided.
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illusionslayer
May 05, 2011 at 2:38pm
There is no leadership. If any member of Anonymous steals the rest can say that Anonymous didn't do it and that the individual was acting on their own.
“If a legitimate and honest investigation into credit card theft is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable,” Do you have any idea how difficult it would be for a judge to pronounce that judgement? It's like saying no one or everyone in the room is guilty.
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