Anonymous Denies Sony PlayStation Network Hack

Los Angeles – The hacker group Anonymous has denied
involvement in a malicious attack on Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) online games and streaming media
services networks, despite a revelation from Sony of a calling card attributed
to Anonymous it found while investigating the hack, CNET reported. "When
Sony Online Entertainment discovered this past Sunday afternoon that data from
its servers had been stolen, it also discovered that the intruders had planted
a file named ‘Anonymous’ on one of those servers, a file containing the
statement with the words ‘We are Legion,’" Sony head Kaz Hirai wrote in a
letter to Congress, where the company was invited but did not appear to testify
at a hearing on Wednesday on the topic of data theft.

While Anonymous did claim
credit for another recent attack on Sony’s online servers — which it said were
staged in retaliation for Sony’s prosecution of PlayStation hacker George Hotz
— it denied involvement in the attack during which credit card data was
exposed.

"If a legitimate and honest investigation…is conducted,
Anonymous will not be found liable," reads a letter posted online by
Anonymous. "While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our
‘leadership’ does not condone credit card theft."

However, Sony’s Hirai
suggested that Anonymous’ denial-of-service attacks could have unwittingly
"provided cover" for another malicious attack.

"Whether those
who participated in the denial-of-services attacks were conspirators or whether
they were simply duped into providing cover for a very clever thief, we may
never know," Hirai wrote.

"In any case, those who participated in the
denial-of-service attacks should understand that — whether they knew it or not
— they were aiding in a well planned, well executed, large-scale theft that
left not only Sony a victim, but also Sony’s many customers around the world."

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20060033-17.html

http://tinyurl.com/3bqtmxf
(DMW previous coverage)