No Explanation for Hacking?

Playstation.blog

I was disappointed to turn on my Playstation 3 on Thursday and learn that Playstation Network was not available. As Easter weekend approached, Sony took down their worldwide internet gaming service Playstation Network. Playstation Network provides over 70 million gamers around the world with free online play and downloading of some particular games. There have been some issues with internet hackers (hacktivists) in the past and there are some people viewing this as another hack by a primary group called Anonymous.

At first, Sony only let out a statement on their blog saying that they were “aware certain functions of Playstation Network are down.” But there was speculation that the network had been hacked and this was partially confirmed by Sony in their next blog by saying that an “external intrusion” was to blame for the service being suspended.

pcmag.com

There has been some thoughts as to if the hacker group Anonymous is to blame for these latest hack attacks. This is because of the lawsuit filed by Sony upon Playstation 3 hacker, George Hotz, who is believed to have uncensored some of the PS3’s methods of how it works and running custom packages with the system. After Sony filed the lawsuit, Anonymous sent them a letter threatening them of hacking their websites and they did just that. Sony’s main web sites went down for a full day.

These so called hacktivists (a play on hackers and activists) are supporters of whistle blowing sites such as Wikileaks. They have even gone so far as to introduce a site called Tunisileaks when the country of Tunisia blocked Wikileaks.

Here is where people begin to disagree with the function of this “group”. On one side people will tend to say that, first off, companies should not make enemies with people that can hack their systems. Another side will say that Anonymous isn’t even a group and therefore cannot be recognized and or blamed for these acts. These people think that Anonymous stands for an anarchist idea of internet freedom and free speech. Even so, other people will believe that these hackers are sort of like terrorists in that they think they are always right and can go about with shutting down networks and disabling sites at their own will.

Personally, I agree that hacking groups like Anonymous are good for showing corruption among physical entities. But honestly, I just want Playstation Network back online as soon as possible. Then I’ll be able to play my Call of Duty: Black Ops and watch Cheers and Trailer Park Boys on Netflix again. Heck, I might even Skype with a friend just to get my use out of it in the four days I’ve lost so far.

Here is a video from earlier this month stating that Anonymous did not want to interrupt the PSN but wanted to target Sony, among stating other things.

Tweet of the day:

kevinlove Kevin Love

Happy Easter!