A splinter group from ‘Anonymous’, known as ‘Sony Recon’ are trying to discover information on Sony employees. The group is gathering the personal information of ‘useful targets’ including Robert S. Wiesenthal, a group executive at Sony Corp as well as the Judge and legal team in the current Geohot case.
Sony Recon founder ‘Randomtask’ apparently posted ‘Sony, the judge and Sony’s lawyers are all valid targets.’
The group PlayStation LifeStyle are suggesting numerous uses for the information including creating personal adverts for ‘erotic services’ on Craigslist and spamming the addresses with hundreds of free UPS boxes. They also suggest the following:
STD Postcards – send one of these e-postcards notifying the target that one of their previous sexual partners has a STD. Makes for an uncomfortable wait for them. Alternatively call an AIDS hotline and ask them to anonymously tell the target they could have HIV, that’s a 6 month wait until the test comes back.
Since the postings on the Sony Recon channel went public, PS3 Hacker ‘Kakarotoks’ has tweeted:
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.
Hopefully he is correct and Sony Recon will back down.
Update: After further research into this it seems we need to point out a little more strongly that the comment concerning “Stringer’s kids” was an isolated comment and has not been endorsed by any of the leadership of either Anonymous or SonyRecon (such that they are). The headline and content has been altered to reflect this.
Source: PlayStation Lifestyle / Twitter
cc_star
There are many people sympathetic to the core points of their argument, but they will lose them by being just as underhand & heavy-handed as the organisation they’re protesting against.
cc_star
oops
The problem with Anonymous is that it literally could be anyone, it could be the bloke stood next to you on the bus, the girl in the office at work, the kind uncle who always remembers your birthday – it literally could be anyone. What this means is that there is a groundswell of opinion in the ‘group’ which results in large targeted attacks of the type we’ve seen again Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and of course Sony yesterday, but as literally anyone is Anonymous there will of course be the boatload of f***tards who want to do things differently and even more wrongly.
If a DDoS is the (albeit unlawful) protest equivalent of occupying a business, then these extremist strands are the equivalent of the morons smashing everything up and throwing ammonia ‘bombs’ & Molotov cocktails at police. the ‘groups’ are both intrinsically linked and completely separate paradoxically at the same time.
jayjay119
I was going to say, this sort of behaviour is nothing short of hooliganism whether it is cyber or not, but then thought it may sound a little bit too sensationalist. Glad other people think the same as I!
Deathbrin
At least SONY has a reason to fight; this is just picking on people for the fun of it.
colmshan1990
@ cc_star,
Any member of Anonymous is guilty by association.
If you decide to be ‘Anonymous,’ you can.
When you know the calibre of people you’ll be part of a group with (let’s face it, it’s hardly the first time they’ve targeted children, is it?) and still go through with it?
Sorry, but you don’t have ANY moral ground.
cc_star
There isn’t a group, its literally anyone.
One person posts something unsavoury it doesn’t tar anyone else, any more than someone posting a comment on TSA tars you by ‘association’
colmshan1990
If Anonymous isn’t a group, how is it organising attacks
Or is it just one person? Come on, don’t be that gullible.
Every time an attack like this is planned, a group is planning it.
It’s quite simple, actually.
If what you’re doing isn’t bad, or illegal, be proud, and tell the world who you are. You’ll be lauded. On the other hand…
cc_star
Also, for all anyone actually knows that one comment could have come from someone connected with Sony in some way, whether a fan or on their actual payroll as part of a PR tactic.
colmshan1990
I’m well aware that the comment could have come from anywhere.
The fact remains that they are illegally hacking Sony’s websites and services for their customers.
Unless you’re going to claim that it was Sony in that instance too?
cc_star
On your first point above
Think how a flashmob works, and then increase the scale massively.
And secondly
They’re pinging a webserver until it is unable to cope with the amount of traffic, where’s the hack? Yes it’s still unlawful, but it could be construed as legitimate just as Sony’s use (or abuse as these people see it) of the judicial system is seen by them as being legitimate.
BTW I’m all for Sony using the full power of the law to protect their business interests (which provides me with many years of good value entertainment). I do have other beliefs too, not that I’d act on them because I believe it won’t make any difference at all.
Punishing George Hotz to the full extent of the law for publishing the key, or for profiteering from it is 100% fine by me if the court decides he has done those things. But until then, he’s innocent until proven guilty and either party have had their respective appeals heard.
But its also a shame that Sony couldn’t work with these people (not necessarily Geohot, just the wider interested community in general) to a way to allow greater system access whilst maintaining system security & total control, like Microsoft’s XNA development program, Apple’s App Store or even the Net Yaroze style PS1 development tools or the Ya Basic programming language with the PS2.
The lack of these of course doesn’t justify publishing Sony’s property (the key) which is why I say I’d back any (appeal or even supreme) courts ruling in Sony’s case.
Pete_UK
cc_star, I’m really glad you’re here trying to balance this out. :)
leon
Doing this to anyone let aloan children is just sick.
cc_star
Doing what?
Some person who may or may not be connected to activities asked a question.
There’s shades of either Daily Mail scaremongering or Brass Eye’s Paedo gullibility going on here.
Forrest_01
How far is ‘too far’? The statement ‘No one found ANY info on Stringers kids?’ actually disgusts me to be frank.
ultimatepunchrod
same here. that was disturbing.
BLAGGER
Agreed, having kids as well makes this point hard to read and WTF are they targeting them too? It also reinforces to me that hackers are nothing but a bunch of c*nts…
ashw92
This is getting absolutley beyond a joke. They need to stop thinking they are always doing the right thing and have full support of the public. It’s just disgraceful beahviour now
teflon
Surely that’s not the way to the hearts and minds of the public. Going after employees’ kids’ information? That’s considered a low blow even in politics!
quinkill
hmmm, not cool.
jayjay119
vile, nothing short of disgraceful. I really don’t see how they even think this is for the ‘good of the people’ I certainly don’t want them acting in my name and hope Sony contunue the fight with all the success they have so far had.
david
Die in a fire springs to mind. God I hate people like this.
Voganlight
Jesus, that’s disgusting.
ProjectJAY
This whole hacktavist case has made me so mad, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t just send Judge Dredd after these punks. Him or the real-world equivalent.
3shirts
This is the downside of Anonymous. While the main attacks may be harmless to individuals, a splinter group can go off and do real harm and it’s all blamed on ‘Anonymous’.
Since many people (let by the media) think Anonymous the name of some organised group like the Real IRA or ETA people will think they are terrorists so anything else they do, regardless of how peaceful etc will be tarnished.
colmshan1990
The simple thing is, if you’re in the right, why be anonymous?
If you’re not, you are guilty…
It’s not that hard to comprehend.
Illegal acts cannot be condoned because a company is doing something which you do not like legally.
3shirts
I think you are simplifying right and wrong a little there. You are also suggesting people only want anonymity to commit crime. Look how the media frequently misrepresent people, sometimes losing them their job and respect only to later publish a tiny apology on page 32 that does nothing to repair the damage.
Some people use anonymity to protect them from that damage in the first place
colmshan1990
Or perhaps because pretty much every attack on Sony in the last day or so has been illegal?
I think that there are less legal than illegal, and that is a sad and sorry site.
Especially when I look around and see people not only supporting them, but defending them also.
3shirts
The point is that breaking the law isn’t a black and white deal.
Doing 80 in a 70 isn’t the same as doing 50 in a 30. Equally, DDoSing a Sony site isn’t the same as publishing personal information of one individuals private life.
I don’t agree that illegal acts can never be condoned. I think there ARE exceptions (though I don’t agree with anything that’s been done here)