Hackctivist group Anonymous has "temporarily" suspended its attacks on the PlayStation Network.
The collective said on its website that it's revising its strategy in a bid to make sure its assault on Sony doesn't draw consumers into the firing line.
"Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time. Sony's official position is that the PSN is undergoing maintenance. We realise that targeting the PSN is not a good idea. We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers.
"Anonymous is on your side, standing up for your rights," the group added. "We are not aiming to attack customers of Sony. This attack is aimed solely at Sony, and we will try our best to not affect the gamers, as this would defeat the purpose of our actions. If we did inconvenience users, please know that this was not our goal.
"That being said, our campaign against Sony and others that would trample on the idea of free information will continue, until we are satisfied with the outcome."
Anonymous has warned Sony that the worst is yet to come, describing its recent attacks on the platform holder in support of infamous PS3 cracker George 'Geohot' Hotz as mere "poking and prodding".
Comments
45 comments so far...
Moorpheus on 7 Apr '11 said:
Surely anything they do to Sony will, in some way, affect Sony consumers?
theimmortal on 7 Apr '11 said:
They're only doing this because they were basically annoying everyone and drawing negative views towards themselves from gamers.
I just wish they'd give they're self righteous ranting a rest as well.
TimHotston on 7 Apr '11 said:
Although I think that this chain of events has been blown out of proportion, it is nice to see that Anonymous aren't "attacking" PSN.
KongDonkeyKong on 7 Apr '11 said:
Its a little late now, they have already p**sed of the PS community. If they wanted support they should not have not annoyed the gamers they are supposed to be on the same side as.
heavyhunter on 7 Apr '11 said:
Sony hurry up and catch these tosspots so we can all give these guys a backhand or two, and maybe smash their computers up. How will they live then, let's wait and see:D
NGP on 7 Apr '11 said:
The first comment here is exactly what I was thinking. Please leave the company alone and let them work. If you don't like a company, just don't buy their products. If you try to take them down with malicious internet based attacks I hope you get arrested.
martinawatson on 7 Apr '11 said:
Agreed , they really have lost there way , and they certainly don't represent me.
raredevice on 7 Apr '11 said:
They're so pathetic. They should get a life and stop trying to justify their existence with all this bulls**t.
Domin666 on 7 Apr '11 said:
To all the hackers in the world,come round my house and i will show you what a real man does with his hands.None of this punching key's i will show you what a real punch is.
If you dont understand what i'm getting at listen to GnR's get in the ring.
Punks the lot of you on your high horse get down and look around your not helping anyone get it.
JAKEevans on 7 Apr '11 said:
Oh dear it was bound to happen wasn't it? Replacing women with computer games helped ease these nerds for many years...but then the hunger came back!Games weren't enough anymore...so the anger has grown once again!
Sigh what happened to just playing and enjoying games anyway? I wonder if that stopped as soon as internet functions were built into consoles?
AegisK on 7 Apr '11 said:
Anonymous apologies. One of its main hackers needs to go to school otherwise his parents will ground him again.
Si-Smith on 7 Apr '11 said:
can't they stick with hacking their xbox 360's? but then i suppose there is nothing to do on the xbox 360 anymore & it only does kiddy kinect games now, so i suppose these so call hackers are bored to death LoL
TheLastDodo on 7 Apr '11 said:
Anonymous are just amateurs. This is how you do it.
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/860196-old- ... in-armenia
Balladeer on 7 Apr '11 said:
thejadefalcon on 7 Apr '11 said:
Wow. There's more pathetic excuses for trolling on this thread than there are on 4chan. I find most of you amusing because you think you're actually clever and/or threatening. "HURR DURR, NERDS DON'T KNOW WHAT WOMAN IS! I'M REAL MAN I PUNCH YOU."
I don't particularly care that Anonymous is after PSN, simply because I don't know enough about the situation to form an opinion either way, but even if you disagree with them, there's no reason to act so pathetic.
nuggit3000 on 7 Apr '11 said:
Good to see most people here are not on the side of the hackers. While Im not too bothered about Geohots hack, he has opened up piracy to PS3 and Sony deserve to defend it. Now these guys are just destroying PSN for everyone.
Just let the courts decide if Geohot is a criminal, nothing you do will make Sony pull out of court, so you are only p**sing off the community support you had.
only_777 on 7 Apr '11 said:
For me, it's a hard argument to take/agree/condone either side of.
Sony is a business first, they're in the business to make money. As corporations are treated as individuals, I do not see any fault with an individual selling a product for gain, at the least trying to get a customer to part with their money willfully for something they may enjoy. In the gaming sphere, Sony has done a great job with providing one of the most rich, diverse, and accessible catalogs of experiences in relation against their competitors. For that I appreciate their business.
However, Sony's handling of a minority of their customers rubs me the wrong way. Removing the ability to do something that was part of their selling features for vague/unclear/debatable reasons without compensating those customers somehow is I feel a bad business practice. With the current hacker witch hunt, I feel Sony is pushing and sometimes crossing the line of what a court-treated individual should be able to do in preparing a legal case, much less something it should be able to do on a whim.
I'm not a big fan of Anonymous and their associate cheerleaders in the various 4Chan branches. I believe people behind a blameless, unaccountable mask are capable of great harm less towards the world at large, but to individuals. Their ire is quickly stirred over matters great and insignificant, and being unable/unwilling to police themselves more extreme individuals can follow a tangent of twisted morality and cause harm to the outcome desired by the populous at large.
However, Anonymous is a good thing. A non-organization that will act for the public that can't/won't do anything in areas organizations think they have the upper hand above the public is something necessary. Whistle-blowers expose corruption and fraud, and I don't think someone could do such a thing these days without the issue being horrendously vile, unless they could hide behind the protective mask of being Anonymous.
I don't think I could make any kind of argument comparing something like, "Is this Sony attack any better or worse than the attack on Majong servers?" or "Is this property protection any better or worse than what Microsoft did years before?". The hook usually starts the same but it always turns into another song. Guess I have to treat 'em all on a case by case basis.
So, I don't believe Sony is the goddamned f**king devil, but they need to take a step or two back from the line they're stepping on. Also, I do agree with Anonymous that Sony has done things they shouldn't do in restricting freedom of information, but I don't condone their execution of attacks.
JakeyBaby on 7 Apr '11 said:
Already they've done more damage to me than SONY ever could. It's fair to say if I met Kaz Hirai, I would shake his hand. If I met a member of anon, I would punch them in the face, and take their wallet as compensation.
On another note. If GeoHot doesn't distance himself from anon - can the consumer sue the crap out of GeoHot for the reaction from these twits? I'd be up for that, seen as we don't know who these bell ends are.
Clusks on 7 Apr '11 said:
I don't get it really. These groups that claim they're fighting for the rights of the people, the more out of control hacking/torrenting gets the less profit the industry makes. I know these companies still make millions of pounds from their games regardless but I still find it somewhat unfair to think that we have some sort of right to get it for free when they've put a lot of money and effort into making it.
fs86 on 7 Apr '11 said:
I agree with that sentiment, but at the same time, most games studios struggle to make anything like millions from a title. This is why I think that the entire situation is bonkers - I mean fair enough GeoHot may have wanted nothing to do with piracy, that's not for me to decide, but if someone picked the lock on your front door but didn't steal your stuff, you'd still be justifiably p**sed with them. It's also nice that it's gotten so out of hand that we no longer have such archaic concepts as industrial espionage - no we just have a group of nameless, faceless "champions" to bully corporate secrets out of a company.
Having said that, I think that Sony might have been a little heavy handed in trying to make an example of GeoHot. I agree in principle in dealing with him, but kid gloves maybe...
Taking away PSN was always gonna be a mistake as well, how did anon NOT know that? Maybe they thought we'd appreciate having them "on our side"? Thanks anon, but no thanks... fairly certain we don't need you guys pulling the "protective big brother" routine, especially when Sony are defending their own product that is worth SO much money to them.
TheLastDodo on 7 Apr '11 said:
Bunch of lawbreakers defending a fellow lawbreaker by attacking innocent families of Sony execs and PSN users. Sums it up nicely.
PseudoDuck on 7 Apr '11 said:
I have to admit that until this recent activity I've always been behind the actions of Anonymous. But attacking Sony seems a lot less clear cut than their support of Wikileaks or their dealings with the Church of Scientology.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 7 Apr '11 said:
Power to the people. don't let the ' man ' stand in your way
bazgil on 7 Apr '11 said:
If I were them, I would stop attacking Sony completely. All it takes is for Sony to say "Due to recent attacks through the Playstation Network by Anonymous, we are closing it down indefinitely. Sorry for any inconvenience". That would be entirely their fault, and to be honest, I wouldn't blame Sony if they did do it.
I have no problem with PSN, PS3 or Sony whatsoever. I have a PS3 to play games I buy, not to 'jailbreak' it so I can use it like a computer and illegally download loads of free games.
I have a PC for that.
These guys may ruin it all for me and other gamers if they carry on with this s**t.
Paranoimia on 7 Apr '11 said:
"Anonymous is on your side, standing up for your rights," the group added.
Like hell you are. Not in my name, you halfwits. I hope Sony nail GeoHot to the wall by the balls, and the rest of you with him.
timewarp1 on 7 Apr '11 said:
@jakeybaby Good idea. TBH if I knew how much it would be to raise a civil case against geohot as he is the ringleader in my pov and has not distanced himself from this, then I would. Just to send the message not everyone is on their side or agree with their actions. As I understand, if you attack a company and they have servers in another country you can raise a case against them in the country. Dunno where PSN Europe servers are
Rise_ofthe_Mike on 7 Apr '11 said:
THey are really stupid. Firstly, they already screwed PSN users...PSN has been out for an hour or more at times. I have other things in my life I can do, so no big deal...but still. I'ts the fact that these guy's are ruining peoples experiences, attacking Sony for protecting themselves...These guy's need to get a grip and just STFU.
Madzaw on 7 Apr '11 said:
lol @ the comment about the 360, my god, turning this againts the 360, Im happy you stupid fan boys are getting screwed over this, go anonymous lol, teach them!
timewarp1 on 7 Apr '11 said:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... =anonymous after their own 2 posts (which are all negged) the rest are pretty much on the money
"an online network of trolls"
alan666 on 7 Apr '11 said:
they were attacking PSN, i thought is was just Sony doing more updates & maintenance
Barca Azul on 8 Apr '11 said:
Dear whoever you are, first of all, I dont want you to do anything for me. Second its got sweet FA to do with freedom of speach. Thirdly, I work hard, pay my bills and taxes and with what little I have left after supporting my family I enjoy gaming and paying for the Machine and games that I play them on.
Ive played games for over 30 years and enjoy the serviced I am provided. Whilst Sony may not be the best Coporation in the world, the are far away from being the worst. anything you do puts that service in doubt or any future services, so no matter how you put a spin on it, i am being affected. If Sony hast to spend time, effort and money behind protecting its business, thats less of all three creating new features or games for me.
There are governments that screw people way more, oil producers, Banking institutions, these are fleecing people every day, but I dont see you going after them!
So please cease and leave us to pay our money and take our chances. No one forced us to buy a PS3, however hackers forced Sony to protect its business. If your so desperate to run Linux, buy a PC. Lets face it it would still be there today, if it wasnt used to hack the system in the first place. You cant crap on your doorstep and then complain about the mess!
gypscanuck on 8 Apr '11 said:
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/860196-old- ... in-armenia
If Anonymous did this to PSN I'd cry. Wait they did....Sony has 12 hour maintenence....Anoymous is right in some cases, homebrew and mods are harmless. What they need to worry about is free games (PS3 dwlds) on the net.
Yes I jailbroke my PS3, and still is jailbroken, all GeoHot did was put OS (other software) on it. Mods, Homebrew, hacked games, thats the Internet Sony. If they want to do something, do some course cases with some websites who are dedicated to ruining the PS3.
Fool of a Took!
Look what I did here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMSlXVoLJtM
Paradaz - UK on 8 Apr '11 said:
Will you all stop crying and bleating for god sake......
If Sony haven't got the expertise, resources and redundancy to secure their own networks so you can play your crappy multiplayer games then it simply exposes them for the half-wits that they are.
So many of you are whinging about a couple of hours downtime and the inability to log into PSN like it's a life or death situation....totally pathetic. If you paid a sub for your online gaming then you'd probably have a valid reason why you'd be so peeved about this, it's funny how in every other argument (and especially when comparing against LIVE) you all give the justification of it being a free service so you don't expect it to be so great and that is one of its major advantages.....funny how things change when it's on the other foot.
Go outside and get some fresh air whilst you have chance. Andy dry your f**king eyes too.
El Mag on 8 Apr '11 said:
So having a moan about other people moaning helps how?.
Ninja Wolfman on 8 Apr '11 said:
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.
RandyChimp on 8 Apr '11 said:
If they really cared about the consumers and customers, they should listen to the majority of us, you know, the ones who are saying "Stop what you're doing and do something more constructive with your computer abilities!" Hacking Sony doesn't solve anything. What do they think the court's are going to say when Sony says a group have hackers have retaliated for their lawsuit? He's not going to be leniant on Hotz!
only_777 on 8 Apr '11 said:
Ah, thanks Paradaz - for a second then i thought it was a bad thing that PSN had been hacked.
Now I know that it's ok, everything is just fine and dandy.
barrett on 8 Apr '11 said:
By this comment "That being said, our campaign against Sony and others that would trample on the idea of free information will continue, until we are satisfied with the outcome." it is quite clear that they think they are above the law and more dangerously a law upon themselves.
Seems as though their campaign is back firing on them and they are trying a bit of PR BS to get the public back on side.
RandyChimp on 9 Apr '11 said:
Uh oh! Someone didn't get hugged enough as a child! Come on man, chin up, follow your own advice, go outside and get some fresh air, you're rants and pointless opinions aren't needed here.
Hoof Hearted on 9 Apr '11 said:
So did I.
Anyway, I'm afraid this sort of thing is what we all have to put up with when people set themselves up as judge, jury and executioner.
Paradaz - UK on 9 Apr '11 said:
As you can see, I wasn't trying to be helpful.....I'm well aware this thread has turned into a cry for help but I couldn't give a flying fart. PSN doesn't have many good points other than it's use for multiplayer games on a few select exclusive games.....the PC more than caters for my gaming needs when PSN isn't available even after I cancelled my LIVE subscription many months ago.
The point I'm making is perfectly valid......if you rem ember back to when the 'Other OS' support was dropped by Sony many moons ago now, there weren't many people other than Only_777 and myself having a whinge about it. The people that did have a whinge based not just on that particular functionality that was lost but Sony's inability to deal with it very well and the means by which they took away a feature that was advertised and their total lack of concern regarding the people that bought the console because of that feature. Not only that, they reiterated that they could take away any feature they wanted at the drop of a hat as it fell within their terms and conditions and this was the biggest issue for a lot of people including myself.
This brings me on to the actual point now, which still makes me laugh. When we had the whinge about the 'Other OS' feature, very few people could understand why this was a big deal to some people, and in most cases we were told by other forum users (or users chatting amongst themselves) that the issue wasn't a problem because they didn't use the feature and a small percentage of people did anyway, so just because it didn't affect them it didn't actually matter........now turn the tables, the same people that don't care about the 'Other OS' are stamping their feet and having a fit because PSN is down for a few hours.....and why? because a feature they use is not available to them!!
Now, everyone is blaming the hackers on the downtime, but ultimately it's Sony's lack of expertise to deal with this in the first place. Do you not think that after the PS3 has been laid bare that their very own gaming portal should have at least had some internal security checked and fundamental backup procedures had a dry run. Their lack of expertise is exposed here and lets be honest their system shouldn't really have any downtime....yet we all know their maintenance and delivery of patches is something that has needed a good look at for a long time now.
So there you go, I rarely use PSN because it's the best part of useless with exception to the odd multiplayer game on an exclusive title. A feature which I don't rate, which is served better elsewhere in 99% of cases is down and I couldn't give a toss......but look at all the PS3 users in tears!! Don't blame the hackers just because it's an easy target, yes they may have triggered the situation but Sony should have the means to deal with it and should have had a backup plan for this to happen.
Enjoy your free PSN service, you get what you pay for
lordirongut on 9 Apr '11 said:
This was never about having the minor inconvenience of PSN going down, it's about the general immorality of attacking the average consumer for the sake of a personal vendetta. There were better, and more importantly, legal ways to get back at Sony.
It wasn't right for Sony to remove the Other OS feature, but I'm sure that most would agree, gamers and developers alike, that having a mostly hack-free, cheat-free and pirate-free system is better than a small feature that *wasn't* widely used. No, it wasn't necessarily the right thing to do, and I doubt anyone will argue with that, but I think that it was better than doing nothing. For the sake of the greater good and all that...
Paradaz - UK on 9 Apr '11 said:
You say it isn't about PSN going down but that is exactly what people are whining about......and they are simply taking their frustration out on the hackers when it's really that Sony had pulled the plug to protect their data and infrastructure before it did get out of control
And what are these 'better and more importantly legal ways' to get back at Sony? Please make a list.
Just like Sony and removal of the 'Other OS', the hackers came up with a fast and simple way of dealing with a problem that also carried a big impact. Regardless of what you and others think of Geohot, I can't see how anyone can say that Sony aren't going over the top here and it seems more important to them to use him as an example to others rather than dishing out a suitable punishment in order to scare other people away who might have the same ideas. With regards to what Geohot actually did, it's not exactly the biggest crime in the world and he didn't publish a lot of the information which is now available in the public domain.
In my opinion, the problem isn't really with the hackers at all, it's more a case of Sony being unable to deal with the hacking groups and the disruption they may bring against their portal/network. They're running scared and its obvious for everyone to see. The more this goes on, and they more they throw the book at Geohot the more pain they (and you) will endure. The damage has already been done, even when Sony bring the new SKU out because that looks like the only option they have to repair some of the damage can you just imagine all the hackers going balls out to bust the new system like nothing else. At the end of the day, if a system is made by a human it can be broken by a human and the hackers thrive on the challenge.
El Mag on 10 Apr '11 said:
So long story short, you think Sony are pretty dumb. I agree with that, for how long they've been in the game they seem to lack expertise in key areas. Luckily i don't play online multi player games often so wasn't affected that much, still an hassle mind so i understand the complaining. We've all had a moan at silly things that's the fault of others haven't we. Be it a dodgy ref in football, X-Factor results, trying to get Comet to give a refund on a broken day old tv (bastards). It's in our nature, we want everything our way all of the time.
My main complaint is and always will be the state of the european ps store compared to the others. But it's fair to say Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo could all do things better, if only they listened to the customers more. Hopefully all of this has taught Sony a valuable lesson, don't take away something you've given us or they'll be a s**tstorm.
only_777 on 10 Apr '11 said:
Well I'm re-posting my opinion - maybe doing somthing that is frowned upon, like reposting the same message will get people actually reading it! People might get p**sed off with this sort of thing, but being getting this point accross is more important than people shouting at me for re-posting!
For me, it's a hard argument to take/agree/condone either side of.
Sony is a business first, they're in the business to make money. As corporations are treated as individuals, I do not see any fault with an individual selling a product for gain, at the least trying to get a customer to part with their money willfully for something they may enjoy. In the gaming sphere, Sony has done a great job with providing one of the most rich, diverse, and accessible catalogs of experiences in relation against their competitors. For that I appreciate their business.
However, Sony's handling of a minority of their customers rubs me the wrong way. Removing the ability to do something that was part of their selling features for vague/unclear/debatable reasons without compensating those customers somehow is I feel a bad business practice. With the current hacker witch hunt, I feel Sony is pushing and sometimes crossing the line of what a court-treated individual should be able to do in preparing a legal case, much less something it should be able to do on a whim.
I'm not a big fan of Anonymous and their associate cheerleaders in the various 4Chan branches. I believe people behind a blameless, unaccountable mask are capable of great harm less towards the world at large, but to individuals. Their ire is quickly stirred over matters great and insignificant, and being unable/unwilling to police themselves more extreme individuals can follow a tangent of twisted morality and cause harm to the outcome desired by the populous at large.
However, Anonymous is a good thing. A non-organization that will act for the public that can't/won't do anything in areas organizations think they have the upper hand above the public is something necessary. Whistle-blowers expose corruption and fraud, and I don't think someone could do such a thing these days without the issue being horrendously vile, unless they could hide behind the protective mask of being Anonymous.
I don't think I could make any kind of argument comparing something like, "Is this Sony attack any better or worse than the attack on Majong servers?" or "Is this property protection any better or worse than what Microsoft did years before?". The hook usually starts the same but it always turns into another song. Guess I have to treat 'em all on a case by case basis.
So, I don't believe Sony is the goddamned f**king devil, but they need to take a step or two back from the line they're stepping on. Also, I do agree with Anonymous that Sony has done things they shouldn't do in restricting freedom of information, but I don't condone their execution of attacks.