Sony is still trying to figure out how to best to handle the recent attacks on its PlayStation Network that compromised credit card and other personal information for millions of user accounts. Unfortunately for Sony, sweeping the situation under the rug is no longer an option, not with the continued downtime and literally millions of eyes now on Sony. Company head Howard Stringer already offered up a $1 million apology in the form of an insurance policy, and now we hear Sony is considering a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for causing this whole mess.
According to All Things Digital, Sony hasn't reached a final decision on whether it will actually go this route, and perhaps company decision makers have been watching too many westerns lately. However, the idea is at least out there and shows how badly Sony wants to capture those responsible for the attacks.
Sony won't act on its own if it offers up a bounty, All Things Digital reports. Instead, the company will work in cooperation with law enforcement agencies like the FBI and local authorities in other countries.
In related news, Sony President Kaz Hirai sent a letter to Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal containing previously undisclosed details about the attack. According to the letter, the systems used to break into Sony's network used 130 servers and 50 distinct software programs, using "very sophisticated and aggressive techniques to obtain unauthorized access to the servers and hide their presence from the system administrators."
Comments are closed on this article
whathuhitwasntme
May 09, 2011 at 3:11pm
The more of this crap I read the more I think this should have been
about the ability to run ANY OS. From where I stand the platform is
broken beyond repair, along with the trust the consumer needs in a
corporation you give personal credit card information to. The careless and
irresponsible actions of the few runing the company clearly show a complete
lack of ethics on thier part. In Japan a lapse like this was once accompanied
by the death of the responsible party to save the company "face". Apparently
they no longer care that the entire world believes they are nothing more
than liars and cheats now. Congratulations Sony, you are now officially
an American Corporation, able to lie,cheat, and steal with the best of them.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
May 09, 2011 at 6:45pm
I think you've seen a few too many ninja movies. I don't think Japanese execs often practice Seppuku....
Bullwinkle J Moose
May 09, 2011 at 2:27pm
Sony is considering a reward for the arrest and prosecution of those who caused this whole mess?
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SONY caused this whole mess and I demand their arrest and prosecution right NOW!
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Oh and don't forget to send me the reward!
Thats how lame they are to offer a reward for the arrest and prosecution of those who caused this mess
I can't order the arrest and prosecution of those involved so the reward will never be paid by the cheap basterdz at SONY (Even if the problem makers are arrested and prosecuted)
What I mean is that you can never prove to SONY that it was YOU who made the Gov't prosecute the hackers so the reward will never be paid
Unless..
I hereby make a citizens arrest of all Sony Executives who caused this mess and duly convict them in the court of public opinion
Now send me the reward, but it better not be a friggin playstation or I'll sue yer azz
Case Closed!
Chewieshmoo
May 09, 2011 at 1:54pm
Ha Ha OH SONY PLEASE do that! Please Piss off hackers even more! Yeah I am SURE you wont regret it.........
Morete
May 09, 2011 at 1:40pm
So where are all of the people who leave the comments like "It's Sony's business what they want to do and how they want to do it. They are a Corporation and they have the right to do whatever they want to do. If you don't like it, don't buy or use their products. If you don't like it, start up your own Corporation and run it how you want to." Are the pro-corporate capitalists nowhere to be found? lol. Could it be that hacking and anti-EULA is their hidden exception? :)
JohnP
May 09, 2011 at 1:28pm
Heh, you get what you pay for. MS has a business model for their online presence. That gives them the cash to do a good job in building out a world class server system. SONY decided to go "on the cheap" at first so their network ended up with low resources for its buildout and maintenance. SONY paid the price for this business model, big time.
When using cloud resources, think first of exactly how these services are being supported. Think very carefully about using "free" services without some sort of strong revenue stream behind it. A poor business model means that the company has no good reason to support it in the long term or to make the services robust.
duncansil
May 09, 2011 at 12:47pm
... with the need to lay the smackdown on a teenager who just want to mod a console that he OWNED. Things spiralled out of control from that point on to a place where they are almost past redemption. Root kits, agressive lawyers, lax security anti-consumer lobbying ... who wants to purchase this companies stuff anymore?
Big corporations with the an*l need for complete control of their IP should relaize the expectations and capbalilities of their customer base has changed. Their failure to adapt and their agressive stance has made them the poster child of anti-corpratism.
someuid
May 09, 2011 at 11:53am
Eh, Sony is wasting their time. The damage has been done and I don't think of them as a reliable company anymore. Instead, I think of them as lawyered up bullies who develop shoddy products and services and use their hordes of cash and connections to corner markets (BluRay) and squeeze as much cash out of consumers as possible.
There is no way to solve such a giant, egg-on-face blunder like this. Trying to cover it up or shift blame or not make it up to customers right the first time are just yet more examples of why this will happen again and again and again.
We all know Sony could have secured their newtork better to survive this attack. Just take one look at Microsoft. If there is any tech company out there that draws the ire of a lot of people, its them, yet we don't hear about their systems being busted wide open like this.
Sony's management Screwed Up. Their refusal to take this seriously shows they don't understand let alone care about preventing this from happening again. All they care about is shifting the blame so the lowly consumer thinks the hack was inevitable and there wasn't anything they could have done.
dalant
May 09, 2011 at 10:32am
Death to companies that tell me what I can and cant do with things I OWN
kixofmyg0t
May 09, 2011 at 11:53am
That's right death to Valve, Blizzard, Microsoft, Apple and every other company on the planet with a EULA.
I bought a Xbox, DEATH TO MICROSOFT cuz it won't play GameCube games!!! I bought it, I OWN it so I should be able to do whatever I want with it right? Well I wanna play GameCube games, that emlulate Atari 7200 games. FOR FREE.
johnny3144
May 09, 2011 at 4:52pm
are you being sarcastic? i really really can't tell.... copy protection and protection of the rights of others is one thing, over extending and abusing EULA is another.
Atomike
May 09, 2011 at 10:26am
From IFLATLINEI - "your uninformed".
Thank you for this. These 2 words together are priceless. Irony is a beautiful thing.
IFLATLINEI
May 09, 2011 at 8:52am
If Sony continues with this attitude we may have seen the PSN's best days. All these hackers who have focused their energy on Sony are a direct representation of a majority of Sonys 70 million users and their anger towards Sony for various issues/reasons. Until Sony can understand that they wronged and alienated their own community things will just get worse.
Yes this is about other OS. Argue against it if you must but your always going to be wrong. Yes this is about sueing George Hotz as well. If your the person who thinks Sony was right and the kid is a punk then I can only say your uninformed and too far removed from the tech scene to every really understand both sides and what they mean for the present and the future. To you I can only say shut up and listen to your gamer friends. YES this is about Piracy but not like you think. What we are asking for from Sony does not include piracy. Some do but Sony chooses to alienate everyone instead of just the ones who do.
Bottom line....Its about more things I care to get into but im telling you with absolute certainty that the balls in Sonys court and their only way out is to start being more flexible. They want total control over everything and I guess since its their network they can do what they want. But theres a problem with this thinking. They need users. So really its us that dictates whats what. Personally i choose to just go another way. I want total control over my gaming and equipment. I dont want to be locked out or limited. So its looks as though my PS gear is going to be sold and ill just have to make the best out of PC gaming. I suggest all gamers look to this route
kixofmyg0t
May 09, 2011 at 9:50am
This is about OtherOS? Really? Did Sony FORCE you to update your PS3 and remove the OtherOS option?
The PS3 had the option to install a gimped version of linux onto it's HDD. You couldn't do THAT much with it honestly. I had Yellow Dog 6 on my launch day 60GB PS3 and I barely used it. It was a nice feature but it wasn't a make it or break it thing for me. I remember when the update that removed OtherOS came out YOU HAD THE FRICKEN OPTION NOT TO UPDATE. Jesus christ people you're acting like Sony removed the Blu-Ray drive or something.
"Ohhh NOEEZZ! S0nY stoles OtherOS from us! How r we'z 'post to rip blue-ray muvee's!!!?!!?"
You don't even remember why Sony removed OtherOS do you? It wasn't to screw over consumers. It wasn't to anger the "hackers" out there. It was to protect Sony's property. A few people were hard at work night and day trying to gain access and bypass the SPU that runs hypervisor. They were trying to "hack" the PS3 for the sole reason of pirating games. Try and argue that if you want but it's true.
"NOES SILLY N00B WE WANTS IT TO RUN HOMEBREW!"
Riiiiight. That's why everyone hacks the PSP right? To run a half ass port of Doom? It's not at all because 99% of people who've hacked their PSP's play pirated ISO's. Nope not at all.
This is really about cheap ass people who don't want to pay for anything at all. It's about Sony crushing your hopes and dreams of getting on isohunt or whatever and dling all ur favorite PS3 games for free. That's it.
You say "YES this is about Piracy but not like you think" Well what kind of piracy are you talking about?
You can't sit there and tell me that if the PS3 was hacked and had all kinds of CFW on it that ass loads of people wouldn't pirate games. Hell I'd do it in a heartbeat. You kidding me? FREE PS3 games? You'd be stupid NOT to. THAT'S the very reason why Sony is so hard after geohot and this whole mess blew up in the first place.
You people that are butthurt about Sony removing OtherOS are fringe users. You are a VERY SMALL slice of the pie. 99 out of 100 people who buy a PS3, buy it TO PLAY GAMES(some use it as a stand alone Blu-Ray player but still). The PS3 IS A GAME CONSOLE. You're so fricken butthurt about it then go back to a PC! How many people post on here "PC gaming FTW!"? Yep go with that crowd.
Polious
May 10, 2011 at 10:42am
I understand your argument all too well, and it makes since from a consumers stand point, but not to technical people. You have to train yourself to think differently look at this as Sony being an equivalent to a bank, now that you have that in your mind understand that banks have certain procedures and protocols to follow before they are allowed to store your money and other personal info. Understanding this will give you a whole new prospective. See although the hackers were wrong in the attack so was Sony they didn’t care enough about their customers to better protect their info. A good reason people were originally upset is because the otherOS feature was ADVERTISED when they purchased it!
Another note is that yes this did all start because Sony is nothing more than a bully for attacking the teenager for him cracking they’re OS, but let’s recall the same dispute happened to apple when jail breaking first came out and the courts ruled that although there is some IP involved the actual devise is YOURs to do with as you please. Finally your estimate of 99% of the PS3 hacking community used the original OS feature to just pirate games is false considering that the PS3 is very nice COMPUTING device from its storage capabilities to its processor speed and for the price is pretty cheap, which is why the FBI bout them in bulk. So to assume that 99% of those people are up to something is like saying the city is safe and food is sold in stores so there is no reason to own a gun other than to rob and kill.
johnny3144
May 09, 2011 at 5:02pm
just so you know, there are people who hack their stuff not to pirate, or attempting to offend someone. they do it because they like it, they find it fun. people finding making their own software running on a piece of hardware they have fun and interesting. also someone people find the given software sluggish and bad, so they want to improve these software themself(because the company is too cheap or lazy to improve it themself, like they should).
the hacker shouldn't have attacked sony, but sony should have bloody made their secruity a bit better. it's called ethic, and sony is to blame for not following it. both party is at fault, but sony as huge cooperation should have know better. it's like a bank leaving it's vault open, then tell you all your money is lost in a thieft. the thief is at fault, but no more than the bank.
Gikero
May 09, 2011 at 10:59am
I guess I don't understand why you are so angry. You sound "butthurt" over someone else's opinion.
There are plenty of people out there who run custom firmware for pirating, but it isn't everyone. My PSP was my introduction to modding. Honestly, I don't pirate my ISOs. I've got around 10 legitimately purchased PSP games that I just wanted to be able to run of the memory stick. I also took my favorite PS1 games from my childhood and put them on my PSP.
The OtherOS issue is based on the fact that the option should have stayed there. Besides, if it was running under a virtual machine, all they had to do is limit that virtual machine's access to the Blu-Ray discs, rather than pulling the feature.
As for your last comment, this is Maximum PC. There are always going to be those chanting "PC gaming FTW" and the like.
kixofmyg0t
May 09, 2011 at 11:46am
True, I do sound a bit butthurt. I'm really just angered that people are acting like Sony removing OtherOs gimps the console so much that they can't use it for what it was intended for. They're acting like it's the end of the world or something. Most people (I'm saying like >95%) have NEVER even used OtherOs or even know what that means.
I have 5 PSP's, my first one was a launch day PSP-1001. Ever since the TIFF exploit in OFW 2.0 I've been in the PSP modding scene. I can tell you this, 100% of the people I've hacked PSP's for don't give two shits about homebrew. All they want is to play PSP games for free.
Think about if Sony just said "screw it" and let the PS3 be hacked. You know damn well a vast majority of people would mod their system for the sole purpose of being able to dl ISO's and play them for free. Maybe 3 people on the planet wouldn't.
Sony DID limit the features that OtherOs could access. You didn't have access to the GPU, you couldn't access two of the SPU's(one was disabled anyway, but the other ran the hypervisor. Not even the PPU has access to that SPU. It CAN start the hypervisor process, and shut it down but it can't read any data in that SPU's local store)...and I don't remember if you could access the GPU's memory addresses....so you were limited to 256 MB in total RAM for EVERYTHING. Not really ideal to do much of anything. But some clever people out there were on the brink of breaking that whole system using the OtherOs feature. Sony saw it as a threat to security and removed the feature entirely. If you could bypass or shutdown the hypervisor then that would open the flood gates to CFW and miliseconds after that pirated ISO's of PS3 games.
Oh and I only mentioned the PC gaming thing cuz if they really wanted all up in Linux so bad their is a PC right in front of them.
IFLATLINEI
May 09, 2011 at 12:03pm
Thanks for proving my point. Your uninformed or maybe just plain ignorant. OtherOS was just the beginning. Gimped?? Yes it was. But with GeoHots hack the potential was there for running homebrew apps/ servers, or whatever your heart desires. Its a powerfull machine and could be put to use in more ways than just a standalone game machine. Which apprently is borderline worthless right now. Sounds like one extreme or another but I stand by what I said. The majority wants more out of not just their PS3's but all their devices. The majority doesnt want to be limited, especially when these devices are capable of much more. And once again. None of that is about piracy.
kixofmyg0t
May 09, 2011 at 7:41pm
Really? Its about homebrew hmm? Please enlighten me, us, the world to what this magical homebrew/app/server was that could only be done with the OtherOS?
Since i'm "uninformed" please learns me some smarts kthx? I really wanna know what was so damn important about OtherOS. If its not about piracy then please tell us what these "apps" could be.
IFLATLINEI
May 09, 2011 at 12:08pm
Oh and its about piracy because thats what they want it to be about. It is possible to secure the network and provide more openness. BTW since you know everything. I did get into copying PS2 games long ago and you know what? It was more hassle than it was worth. At the end of the day id rather just buy games worth buying or not play them at all.
jgottberg
May 09, 2011 at 12:16pm
I have owned a PS3 since it came out and I tried the "OtherOS" option once.... ONCE. I could give two craps if they took it away. Why should it matter if they did? I bought the PS3 so I could play games, not tinker with linux builds on it. Quite honestly, you could find a 5 year old POS PC in the garbage somewhere for FREE instead of paying $300 for a PS3 to run linux on.
If they took away the ability to play games on the PS3, of course I would be in a rage. I didn't buy the PS3 to install homebrew crap on it. Why would I buy a PS3 to hack for the purpose when I could just use an old PC?
Besides, I think the only people making that argument ("OtherOS") are the people that want to be cheered on for bashing Sony because it's the thing to do now.
kixofmyg0t
May 09, 2011 at 7:33pm
Well said.
I think alot of these people are just bashing on Sony cuz its the "cool" thing to do.
M3g4d37h
May 11, 2011 at 3:41pm
kixofmyg0t = the perfect customer. compliant. a real company guy. you get the car. your buddy gets the steak knives, everyone else is fired. did y'all hear that? fired.
IFLATLINEI
May 10, 2011 at 6:35am
Look I was trying to avoid all this debate about other OS because its simply a case of one person can see the potential of the feature while another cannot. Its not my fault your so short sighted. Geez I mean look at all the tech we have now a days. Is your imagination really that limited? You cant see what the hardware in the PS3 could be capable of? Do you not understand how Yellow dog linux could have been had all the hardware been unlocked?
My point and the bottom line is quite simple. The majority of the users want more and they are not asking for freebies. All they are asking for is the freedom they feel they are entitled to with their own equipment. If all this was so insignificant as people like you seem to believe do you really think it would have come to all this? PSN down for weeks while everything Sony has is being hacked to pieces.
One more time for the people incapable of comprehending. These attacks are a direct representation of the majoritys disgust with Sony.
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