Sega: Sony could do 'no more' over PSN attack

By Tim Ingham for computerandvideogames.com

Sega has applauded Sony's response to the online "intrusion" that took down PSN across the globe - as it admits hiring notorious hackers to help its own fight against illegal digital attacks.

Sony is still recovering from its decision to take the PlayStation Network offline for four weeks whilst it rebuilt the service's security.

The company has attracted criticism from financial analysts for lost income related to the down time. PlayStation Store remains unavailable to users, costing the firm's publishing and development partners a significant amount.

"It's a practice that we certainly don't condone and we have nothing but sympathy for Sony," Sega West boss Mike Hayes told CVG. "It could happen to anyone. We support Sony 100% through the difficult time, which they've handled very well.

"Sony have communicated extremely well with its publishers, they've taken action and they've led us along each path they've chosen. I don't think they could have done any more.

"We've experienced those kind of attacks ourselves on a much lesser scale, particularly for Football Manager a few years ago. We constantly get them and know it severely damages our business. We won't go into the whys and wherefores, but we know that can happen to anyone in the legitimate sale of intellectual property. Sony get nothing other than our full backing."

Hayes told CVG that Sega has moved to hire notorious hackers in Eastern Europe, to help prevent hacking of its servers - and to install experts in the fight against software piracy. The admission comes after Microsoft revealed that it was working with the teenage Xbox hacker who ran a phishing scam in Modern Warfare 2, in order to "develop his talent".

"Because we're such a big PC developer, obviously anti-piracy solutions are key to us and we think its important to develop proprietary ones. So we are hiring some extremely intelligent people from Eastern Europe that perhaps were previously 'on the other side of our computer screen', shall we say.

"They will be working with us in our technical studios to help solve some of those issues. It's our view that we can use some of that brilliant intellect and technical capability to help consumers enjoy more games legitimately. I think that's quite important. For that reason, Microsoft's move seems quite sound."

Sega is working with independent Swedish Just Cause developer Avalanche on PC/XBLA/PSN title Renegade Ops, which is due for digital release in the autumn. The studio's co-founder Christofer Sundberg has told CVG all about how his firm had benefited from hiring those who had previously specialised in illegal online activity.