115w ago -
Update:
IGN now reports that Sony stated the following regarding the Anonymous Hacker Group's actions, to quote:
"We are currently investigating, including the possibility of targeted behavior of an outside party. If this is indeed caused by such an act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service. Our engineers are working to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers' continued support."
Shortly following,
PlayStationLifeStyle.net reported that Sony has enlisted a DDoS Defense Firm to combat the hackers.
Today Wired reports that an anonymous hacking group originating from the 4Chan board has has officially declared war on Sony for alleged abuse, victimisation and privacy violations in the legal action against a group of PS3 hackers.
Sony's Sr. Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media
Patrick Seybold has
confirmed that PSN has been experiencing intermittent service as well.
To quote: "In an image, posted to the website
AnonNews, a member of the group states, "Sony, you have now received the undivided attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal action against our fellow hackers, Geohot and Graf_Chokolo, has not only alarmed us, it has been deemed wholly unforgivable."
George "Geohot" Hotz and the German-born Alexander "graf_chokolo" Egorenkov are two of the hackers who dismantled the PlayStation 3's security architecture and made the information public. This data has made homebrew software, game piracy and cheating in online games a common occurrence on the console.
To fight back, Sony has entered a long and bitter legal campaign against the coders and their associates.
Since January 2011, Hotz has been entangled in a court case with Sony's American division. In February 2011, Sony Europe demanded German police raid Egorenkov's home and seize any equipment related to hacking the PS3. The Japanese gaming titan has also threatened to sue the cheeky coder for a whopping million euros.
Sony has also had varying degrees of success in demanding information from other sites and services in relation to the case. Paypal gave up all the information on Hotz's account and Sony was able to see the IP addresses of everyone who has visited the hacker's website.
The manifesto says that the forthcoming attacks will also be for reasons other than the legal actions against Hotz and Egorenkov. "Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing," the poster reads.
"Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products?" it asks. "Anonymous would like to inform you that you have only been 'renting' your web domains."
Which, presumably, is a call to arms for DDoS attacks and other online villainy against Sony. The group, working under the name " Operation Payback" has used similar techniques to bring down websites for the MPAA and RIAA."
Finally, according to reports SonyRecon has formed to join in attacks on Sony and
Kilpatrick Townsend, the law firm representing Sony.
PS3 hacker
KaKaRoToKS has
tweeted the following on the situation: Just spoke with the guy from #SonyRecon, he assures me there is nothing like that, no attacks on people and no plans to, ONLY *recon*, gathering information that is already publicly available, in the hopes of finding something incriminating to help in the lawsuit. Anonymous is against violence or threatening/attacking people. He says nothing illegal is being done, and news sites are reporting the information wrong.
After swapping back in my original 160GB HDD, I was still getting the 8002F281 error. I ended up having to do a full PS3 Reset and reformat of the 160...
Update: http://au.gamespot.com/news/6307284.html reports that Sony has now stated the following to their PSN customers regarding the recent attacks, to quote: "If this is indeed caused by such [an] act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service. Our engineers are working to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers' continued support."
As a follow-up to our previous article, today PlayStation LifeStyle (linked above) interviewed the Anonymous hacking group that has been attacking Sony who states the worst is yet to come, while http://kickarss.com/sony-playstation/ps3-news/250-psn-down-here-is-a-fix has shared a fix for those experiencing issues with PSN.
From the PSL interview: "So far, all Sony has seen from us is poking and prodding. A simple salute to let them know, we're coming. Make no mistake, what you saw today and thought to be frustration is merely preparation for what's to come. We said, expect us. Counting us out, would be a mistake.
For the sake of not shooting ourselves in the foot, I won't comment on specific operational tactics we may or may not employ here. I will however say, that if Sony thinks LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) is the only trick in our hat... they're in for a hell of a wake up call. We're really going all out for this one.
There are many different faces to the operation. Something we encourage is creative thinking. To the consumers I would say... Before you judge us, take the time to understand us."
Anonymous have also made available a new video (below), issued a Press Release admitting that hacking PSN isn't a good idea, but posted what appears to be a list of demands, to quote:
"1. Sony must allow for end-user modification of the PS3, as was available prior to the 3.21 firmware update.
2. Sony must end any attempts to bring legal action to alter a product they own.
3. Sony must not pursue legal action against any collected IP address."
Finally, to quote from KickArss.com on the PSN issue fix: "Here is an alternative: Go to Network Settings - Internet Connection Settings - Custom - Select your connection method - Manual Settings - Scroll through until you get to DNS Settings - Select Manual - Enter 8.8.8.8 for Primary and 8.8.4.4 for Secondary.
Now we should let you know beforehand that this is not a proven method and what is doing is redirecting the DNS (Domain Name Service) from the original PSN servers to google's DNS servers. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are the ip addresses for the official Google DNS. A DNS converts ip addresses into readable website names and assists in related network traffic. According to reports of a good number of users, the fix seems to work for some but not for others."
More PlayStation 3 News...
As far as I'm concerned, I hope it lasts weeks though I should point out that PSN has NEVER actually been a target but a few auth + store servers have been (which would have a negative impact on PSN)
If you do have problems accessing PSN call Sony and ask them why, after all it's not like they'd intentionally lie to their customers to keep it quiet.
1) They keep trying, eventually connect and forget about it.
2) They get pissed at Sony, decide not to buy items from PSN any more and Sony loses money.
3) They investigate why they cannot connect, find out about potential hacker group causing the problems and catch something about Linux and open source software on the PS3. This helps them understand and learn what they have lost or never had the privilege of trying on the PS3. They might learn more of the real reason behind all of this.
4) They read the word hacker and get pissed at all hackers with their sites set on Anonymous. This leads to them vowing vengeance on the hackers' first born. After searching for anonymous for many years, they realize that they used up so much time searching, they neglected their PS3, costing Sony revenue and ultimately helping the cause.
Of course, it does not matter because Sony released a new TOS saying that their console expired after not being online for more than a year. There choice is to pay an activation fee or not agree and your PS3 will only be allowed to play Sony Music CD and Movie DVD releases. (
Same principal more computers, more resources. One machine (albeit a server) still has a limit to the amount of data it can send/receive. For a successful (basic) DDoS attack the greater the number of machines from a greater amount of locations will always trump large sites.