There is certainly no love lost between Sony and the theatrically-gifted hacker collective known as Anonymous. The group took aim at the publisher following their legal hassling of PS3 firmware-cracker George "GeoHot" Hotz, albeit largely through a series of proposed pranks and standard denial-of-service attacks that resulted in some supposed connectivity interruptions for the PlayStation Network service.

"If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card [theft] is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our 'leadership' does not condone credit card theft. We are concerned with erosion of privacy and fair use, the spread of corporate feudalism, the abuse of power and the justifications of executives and leaders who believe themselves immune personally and financially for the actions they undertake in the name of corporations and public office."

There is certainly no love lost between Sony and the theatrically-gifted hacker collective known as Anonymous. The group took aim at the publisher following their legal hassling of PS3 firmware-cracker George "GeoHot" Hotz, albeit largely through a series of proposed pranks and standard denial-of-service attacks that resulted in some supposed connectivity interruptions for the PlayStation Network service.

"If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card [theft] is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our 'leadership' does not condone credit card theft. We are concerned with erosion of privacy and fair use, the spread of corporate feudalism, the abuse of power and the justifications of executives and leaders who believe themselves immune personally and financially for the actions they undertake in the name of corporations and public office."

This would be noteworthy, except the fact that Anonymous has no actual core base and that any 12-year-old with too much time on his hands can write a statement and email it calling himself "Anonymous".  Please stop treating this shit seriously.

Anyone with internet knowledge knows what they're line is. They could have easily been framed. Just sayin'.

Let the FBI investigate and let's leave the speculation to the authorities. 

Yea I don't believe them 

I care not

It makes sense. Why would any hacker group leave their calling card in plain sight? They might as well have just sent Sony a letter saying "we did it".

Once Sony painted a target on itself, anyone could have taken the shot.

I still think all hackers are inherently bad people. 

How would they know? They're anonymous... 

Do stop calling them a hacker group, for they are not hackers, not even slightly.

So ebaumsworld did it?

Who would even be the one to write such a statement? It's such a lose group.

I like that people keep on referring to Anonymous as though they are a group.........that's organized.........and have some of "leadership".

Isn't this basically the problem with being the sort of amorphous 'anonymous' blob that they are? If someone claims to be acting on behalf of anonymous then it's pretty much the case. There are no doubt groups within the more structured elements of the anonymous super friends justice league that don't deserve blame, but when the group operates the way they do they're pretty much open to this kind of thing.

It was probably that company they ruined a while back, they admitted themselves they had back stocks of hacks and undiscovered flaws in almost every os

I believe them actually.  Anonymous aggressively advertises their campaigns.

... i just want to play games... i don't give a fuck about any of this, i play fighting games, what the fuck am i supposed to do :( steam kinda sucks after a while.

This is getting ridiculous.

well if it could have been a rogue member of anonymous, anonymous should find who he is and bring him to justice. This has gone beyond pranks on a multinational company. 

a random, pissed off sect

All of this cloak and dagger hacker business would be so much cooler to read about if I wasn't a PS3 owner.

One more piece of not-news ending with a half-truth - that the only 'true' issue at hand is Sony's network security. No, it is *one* of two true issues at hand.

So...?

I am sure some of them did it but the others don't want to be a part of it. It is not like they are an actually group with any control. Also if they did do it they would deny it because they don't want everyone hating them.

Of course when credit card info is retrieved and Sony gets questioned by the federal government, they're gonna deny it.

"

a random, pissed off sect

That is all Anonymous as a whole is. They aren't a proper entity, and I wish people would stop referring to them as one. "

Anonymous has yet to realize the Elephant in the room, they say "Fair Use" as if it were okay to give people the tools to steal. People work to make games and if, for example, someone("Geohot") dug under a farm and started pulling out potatoes and carrots for his friends(the internet), I wouldn't put it against the farmer to be angry and find ways to prevent it. Anonymous claims that Sony is the one breaking the rules but they are just trying to protect what is theirs and protect the integrity of their developers 

" @AlexW00d: What about the stuff surrounding HBGary? "

Is a locksmith an inherently bad person?

As everyone with half a brain already figured out =\

I doubt they did it. They would have bragged about it all over the internet as soon as they did it.
Anonymous is pure trash, but I believe them this time.

I appreciate that these hardware hackers exist to monitor the business practices of corporate electronic companies and all, but the problem with this case is the way "antonymous" stuck their head out and advertised themselves for this event. 

LMAO I love these titles and I love how Alex writes, its like a stream of conscience style but with actual skill. 

They're idiots.
I just hope PSN does come back online this week.

" Anyone with internet knowledge knows what they're line is. They could have easily been framed. Just sayin'. "

" Anyone with internet knowledge knows what they're line is. They could have easily been framed. Just sayin'. "

I second Pinworm45's motion.

Whoever wrote that statement has no idea what Anynymous is and how it works. Anynmous has no leadership. Therefore it's moot (teehee) whether someone who claim he's a part of Anonymous condones credit card theft or not. He can't speak for Anonymous.

Anonymous constantly troll each other by gifting Steam games paid for with stolen credit cards. Anonymous hacks epilepsy support group webpages by injecting javascripts that makes the webpage flash. The only reason these guys who call themselves Anonymous is attacking Sony is because they're whoring for attention.

Anyone can be a part of Anonymous. If the person who actually did hack PSN and obtained the credit card information browse Anonymous related webpages such as Ebaums, then it's perfectly fine to say that Anonymous did hack PSN.

tl;dr anyone who tries to speak for Anonymous is a retard who lacks the basic concept of what Anonymous is.

@TigerDX

" @Slaker117 said:

"

a random, pissed off sect

That is all Anonymous as a whole is. They aren't a proper entity, and I wish people would stop referring to them as one. "

That time has come and gone and unfortunately won't mean much to people past what they can dig up on ED. All the group's most recent exploits with HBGary, Wikileaks, and the last bringing down of the WBC's site have been fairly concentrated attacks. "

Anonymous "stirred" up the bee's nest of crackers to attack even if they claim not to be behind the attack. Offline this would something similar to inciting a riot. The definition is below. I'm sure they have to share some of the responsibility for this attack.

Urging or instigating other persons to riot, but shall not be deemed to mean the mere oral or written (1) advocacy of ideas or (2) expression of belief, not involving advocacy of any act or acts of violence or assertion of the rightness of, or the right to commit, any such act or acts. 18 USC

Riot in this sense of the word would be for stirred up other crackers to attack Sony. Now, can we say that Sony would not have been attacked had Anonymous not done anything? Sure we can't but that's going to be difficult to prove as the timing is just so close.

Problem with being an internet outlaw group like Anonymous, it's hard to prove your innocent especially with so many possible people saying they're part of that group who might have done this in some part if not all. Time will tell once these firms Sony hired to figure things out on the attacks who's who.

While it could be true that Sony is shifting at least part of the blame for this debacle to Anonymous, it seems implausible that Sony is making this up considering that blame shifting what has been a systemic failure of their service on virtually every level would not even begin to deal with the outright PR disaster this has become now that hearings are being held on the subject on Capitol Hill. 

Please tell me why they are even in the news?!  Can you be a scriptkiddie and run a program overnight?  Congrats!  You are a super hacker!  This is nothing more than the real culprits pinning the blame on a bunch of loud kids with a "V for vendetta" fetish.  Now if this was done around 2006-2007, I might actually agree with you...

" This would be noteworthy, except the fact that Anonymous has no actual core base and that any 12-year-old with too much time on his hands can write a statement and email it calling himself "Anonymous".  Please stop treating this shit seriously. "