It seems to be pretty incriminating evidence. A hacktivist group that had vowed to challenge Sony via PS3. An illegal online "intrusion" of PSN and the servers of Sony Online Entertainment. And an uncovered calling card from the attack; a file on SOE's servers mentioning Anonymous by name and bearing its cheery motto: "We are Legion."
Case closed? Not exactly. Sony itself told Congress earlier this week that: "Whether those who participated in the denial of service attacks were conspirators or whether they were simply duped into providing cover for a very clever thief, we may never know."
Now Anonymous - an online hacking community carrying a badge and moniker originally popularised by imageboard 4Chan - is making moves to distance itself away from accusations of leading both the security breaches of PSN and Sony Online Entertainment.
According to Kotaku, any discussion of attacking Sony on the group's IRC servers has been "systematically deleted for weeks", whilst "even mentioning an operation against Sony can lead to a ban". Guilt - or a concerted push to keep its nose clean?
"Last month, an unknown party managed to break into Sony's servers and acquired millions of customer records including credit card numbers," it reads. "In so much as that this incident occurred in the midst of Anonymous' OpSony, by which participants engaged in several of our standard information war procedures against the corporation and its executives, Sony and other parties have come to blame Anonymous for the heist."
'OpSony' is the group's continuing quest to challenge Sony and PS3 for what Anonymous has deemed its nemesis' "offensive against free speech and internet freedom".
The letter later continues: "Whoever did perform the credit card theft did so contrary to the 'modus operandi' and intentions of Anonymous. Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities, we are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards."
The question on the lips of observers is whether Anonymous' 'modus operandi' would still be served by gaining access to Sony's servers without stealing credit card details - and, therefore, how much of a denial the letter really is.
Perhaps the biggest clue surrounding the perpetrator comes from Anonymous' original denial of responsibility for the PSN hack last month. Within 48 hours of PSN being taken offline, an Anonymous rep said:
"Whilst it could be the case that other Anons [Anonymous members] may have acted by themselves, AnonOps was not related to this incident, and does not take responsibility for whatever has happened.
"A more likely explanation is that Sony is taking advantage of Anonymous' previous ill-will towards the company to distract users from the fact that the outage is actually an internal problem with the company's servers."
Anonymous' now-famous name sums up exactly what might become its Achilles heel. Its leaders are faceless and nameless, its support count undefinable. If someone feels part of Anonymous, they can conduct a crime in the group's name.
Before OpSony 2011 has seen the apparent release of confidential Bank Of America emails; punishment for what Anonymous perceived to be "corruption and fraud". There was also the cyber-attack on Kansas' Koch Industries in February for what Anonymous deemed an unjust financial relationship between the company and a Republican Governor, which it said threatened to "usurp American Democracy".
Yet there is no badge of membership or certified sign-up process to becoming an Anon. There is , however, a lot of consumer anger currently being directed towards the group at large.
Only a tiny minority of PS3 owners understands - let alone empathises - with the group's position on Sony. All most consumers are concerned about is that their favourite online gaming service has been stolen from them for over a fortnight - and they're not happy.
Kotaku quotes Gregg Housh, an activist associated with Anonymous, discussing an earlier attack on PSN from the group; one unrelated to April's hack: "All the Sony kids were flooding the [Anonymous chat servers] and whining and complaining," he says, adding that an attack on Sony's PlayStation Network "pisses off a lot of people they want as fans not enemies."
Whoever is responsible for the PSN and SOE attack, whatever their connection to this most notorious of hacking groups - if any - Sony's 'crack team' of investigators, as well as the FBI, will be working round the clock to discover a name... one which means the perpetrator isn't quite so Anonymous anymore.
Comments
44 comments so far...
markyR on 5 May '11 said:
I'm sorry but I really don't understand this. Why the HELL would you bother to send a letter to Congress!!!
Your a known hacking group, you openly declared war on a company, said company was hacked so you send a letter to congress denying your involvement!!
Jesus, this has guilt written all over it, stamped on it, the letter may as well have been letter headed in guilt.
is because you are totally guilty of the act! Or have to be the most stupid bunch of people on the planet.
If your innocent then usually you just leave well alone, the ONLY reason you are going to feel the need to declare your innocence to a government
It's like Osama sending a letter stating I'm sorry but I had no involvement with the planes crashing into the Trade Centre!! bull...
monkeyd_93 on 5 May '11 said:
sounds like a rogue member, however one person single handedly breaking through to get to the files? Unlikely. You brought this war onto yourselves as you fired the first shot, prepared to face retaliation from everyone.
Time to get my pitch fork sharpened
MattyR95 on 5 May '11 said:
I bet they know, but just turned a blind eye saying ''it could be a rogue member''.
Sleepaphobic on 5 May '11 said:
Evidence is weak. Don't know what you've heard brah but we kinda need evidence to actually convict people nowadays.
Bin Laden also admitted to 9/11 so ya.
PandyBear on 5 May '11 said:
Will my penis solve the problem?
Barca Azul on 5 May '11 said:
Sounds like they are a bit worried and don't want the FBI investigatimg them.
markyR on 5 May '11 said:
EXACTLY, your innocent until proven guilty. So again, why would you feel the need to declare your innocence to the law of the land in a letter????
Because you did it or are partly involved in the crime!
StokedUp on 5 May '11 said:
Anonymous are basically s**tting themselves because what they've done has caused massive chaos and now the FBI and other various agents are now hunting them down. These guys could do time for this and there doing everything to try and say it wasnt them. These nerds will break in jail, BREAK!
fps_d0minat0r on 5 May '11 said:
if the following definition is correct, then I suppose their all 'rogues'
"a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel"
g_marrs on 5 May '11 said:
Congratulations, CVG! For your efforts I award you the following:
http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/la/large-sh-t-stirring-spanking-spoon.jpg
May you report many more forum hypes as news.
g_marrs on 5 May '11 said:
You do realise that the FBI was already hunting them down over Wikileaks? Seriously, publicising classified documents probably ranks higher in raising the ire of America and the FBI than Sony's problems. Nothing has changed.
darren_mccoy on 5 May '11 said:
I would suspect an employee who was laid off, someone with insider knowledge.
g_marrs on 5 May '11 said:
Run, Darren, run!!!!
I suggested that as an alternative possibility and have been forced into hiding by angry sonites!
Solm on 5 May '11 said:
I'm fed up with all of this all I want to know is when will PSN be back it's 2 weeks. Surely that's enough time for sony to have it sorted seeing as the are supposed to be working around the clock to get it back up and running.
chamony on 5 May '11 said:
but what happens when/if they find out who did it?
does sony take them to court?
then does Anonymous start attacking sony again for taking another hacker to court........
caveman635 on 5 May '11 said:
i found a solution to when ever we find these f**ks. hang them with osoma bin ladens nut hair. according to his beard he prolly has enough to hang us stupid fat lazy americans. all those in favor of this say i at the end of your message. i
g_marrs on 5 May '11 said:
http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/files/2011/01/witch-hunt.jpg
southbird on 5 May '11 said:
Sony's too busy trying to make an example of this person too. They're so blind with rage that they're making a lot of stupid mistakes. Their failure to appear before their own congressional hearing is evidence. This has been such bad PR that they're flailing instead of trying to serve their customers which only seems to make them out to be that huge corporate villain that Anon is going for.
Agreed.
alan666 on 5 May '11 said:
maybe it was, but they are a renegade member thus not part of Anonymous.
some have questioned why they would send a letter to Congress, well Microsoft invite hackers to a convention every few years, so why shouldn't they send a letter IF they know they as a group were not involved.
The Bossman on 5 May '11 said:
It has to be near impossible for Anon to keep track of all their 'members' if there's no barricades to joining them. The letter should never have been sent either, just try to stay away from all the articles or you'll just drag yourselves straight back into the fight. One thing they don't have clearly is common sense.
Sleepaphobic on 5 May '11 said:
Ya but that's still not enough man.
timewarp1 on 5 May '11 said:
Get me some of what these guys are on!
mornelithe on 5 May '11 said:
I'm still waiting for Sony to start utilizing the PS3's parallel processing power. To heck with SETI/Folding research, let's create a community processing app that helps try to track these people down. There's gotta be something several million PS3's running in parallel can do that's helpful.
chamony on 5 May '11 said:
i imagine you'd have to be able to actually get online for that to happen
X-ArticSniper-X on 5 May '11 said:
when is PSN
coming back on line?
slothfull9 on 5 May '11 said:
Hmm, strange that Sony apparently needed an 'outside expert' to find this file - no wonder they were hacked!
KippDynamite on 5 May '11 said:
Whatever the case, one thing seems clear: the reputation of both Sony and Anonymous have been damaged.
Very_Silver_Ownz on 5 May '11 said:
'' Whatever the case, one thing seems clear: the reputation of both Sony and Anonymous have been damaged. ''
I don't think Anonymous give a crap to be honest. If anything they are loving the attention they are getting.
starvinbull on 5 May '11 said:
For all g_mars's rabid anyone but Sony denials, all an innocent person or group would have to do to prove their innocence is to hand themselves over to investigating authorities. Apparently they are willing to attack organisations for our freedom but won't shed their own blood, won't put their own liberty at risk, won't expose those that break their code of "honour", they're cowards.
Anonymous like all "freedom fighters" reach a point where they run out of legitimate targets and use their skills to feather their own caps or to boost their own profile.
almanac2015 on 5 May '11 said:
You're kidding right? They're not admitting to this crime, but they've done countless other things, multiple DDoS attacks. If they handed themselves over they'd just get prosecuted for multiple DDoS attacks they have owned up to. Besides, they are Anonymous and they will want to stay that way.
The burden of proof rests on prosecution not defence. Anonymous don't have to prove their innocence. Sony (or the FBI) have to prove their guilt.
newsinthefield on 5 May '11 said:
I get the feeling that this hacker(s?) was intelligent enough to realise that Sony will be looking for blood after this latest hack. It would have been easy enough for this rogue hacker to shift the blame to Anonymous simply by leaving Anonymous' motto as a dirty little note. Anonymous are misguided, but they're not stupid -- leaving a taunting message behind simply to aggravate Sony would be beyond the accepted threshold of stupidity.
theaface on 5 May '11 said:
Please, enlighten me on the following...
What constitutes being a member of Anonymous?
What constitutes making you a renegade member of such a group?
How does a group which prides itself on organised chaos manage to distance/differentiate itself from just plain chaos?
I'm guessing it's pretty much impossible to answer any of those questions definitively. This is why, regardless of the finer details, Anonymous is ultimately responsible. If you preach anarchy and incite acts of cyber-vandalism, I'm afraid you can't simply wash your hands of any burden of responsibility when things escalate beyond your own version of what's right and wrong.
alan666 on 5 May '11 said:
i don't see what jurisdiction the FBI have over this, Sony are a Japanese company & the people who hacked PSN could be anywhere in the world, the chances of being extradited to the USA for trial are quite remote, because everyone knows that the US legal system is weighted towards big company's & government.
gogo65uk on 5 May '11 said:
I can't really say if it was Anonymous that did it or not and I don't really give a crap, but who ever it was is definatly a big 'member' of some sort.
markyR on 5 May '11 said:
The servers that were hacked are based in America so it falls under the FBI's jurisdiction to investigate the crime.
They will know who the hackers were, the internet is not a safe haven, by it's very nature your going through networks and computers tracking you. It just takes time to pice he puzzle together but may take longer to find out who was sat at the computer as I doubt it was done from someones house!
And once the culprits are found, they have to answer to stealing the private information of over 100 million people globally. Yeap, they will go to jail for a very long time...
g_marrs on 5 May '11 said:
I applaud you sir for placing value in the investigatory process.
RandyChimp on 6 May '11 said:
They want us as fans? I think they lost that chance a long time ago. Seriously, I don't get this group. Half the stuff they've done seems decent, half seems f**king irritating and pointless. This latest escapade is in the latter category. Do something worthwhile with your computer skills guys. Build better security for PC users, maybe contact Sony and apply for some sort of development job on the PSN or something, anything that isn't sitting at your computers, drinking your red chemical soft drinks and whining that companies who have never met you and probably don't know you exist are screwing you over.
starvinbull on 6 May '11 said:
You're hilarious! Your defence of anonymous is that they can't allow themselves to be proven innocent because they're wanted criminals guilty of similar crimes from the near past.
They should do one of three things.
1. Out themselves and allow the authorities to prove them innocent.
2. Issue a full denial "we anonymous had nothing to do with an intrusion on the PSN, we don't condone it and none of our members were responsible."
3. They could name the individuals responsible.
AegisK on 6 May '11 said:
They attack groups who attack free speech and such. Every attack they said they did has complied with this. I can't see how Anon would be hypocrites and make attacks for personal gain. If they get sued then they could retaliate, because false blame and slander are things they're fighting against.
I'd say the Sony bosses are just looking to point fingers because they don't know how to operate a computer. They have PA's to do that.
g_marrs on 6 May '11 said:
@ almanac
You tried however people who view the world as black and white are often a lost cause.
Thus their insistence that I am taking sides when in fact I've made it clear that it's unknown as yet who is responsible and that just because any side said one thing doesn't mean it's true. If they'd wait until the independent investigatory body finishes then they'd know but if you mention either argument without detailing all potential arguments simultaneously you'll be accused of being either a Sony sympathiser or a Sony hater.
Common sense has deteriorated here into fan-fuelled gamer rage.
nintendolad on 7 May '11 said:
I do believe that while Anonymous, as a group, didn't do this, an off-shoot of Anonymous did. Just because the grouo denies it doesn't mean that a handful of members went and hacked the PSN anyway.
charlyd on 7 May '11 said:
Anonymous are morons that dont seem to think things through these days attacking a whole network just because one little pr*ck (geohot) got taken to court . What are they thinking "we will annoy 70million people just so we can cheer 1 up " they are not legion , they are not organized ,they will be wishing to forget this but hell they wont be forgiven.They claim to be the voice of internet freedom yet the idiots in their (un)organization will continue to cause the internet to become expensive . Hackers the world over will now be viewed as criminals .
southbird on 7 May '11 said:
Mostly they are anyway. "Hacker" is such a dirty word.
g_marrs on 8 May '11 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGDsmZVcxOg