Tag Archives: psn latest

Three Arrested Over PS3 Hacks – Cyber Group 'Anonymous' Blamed

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Spanish police announced yesterday that they had captured three people suspected of hacking in connection with the recent attacks against Sony’s PlayStation Network, as well as government and corporate websites around the world.

One man, based in the city of Gijón, allegedly had a computer used to attack PSN as well as Spanish banks and other corporate companies. The other two arrests took place in Valencia and Barcelona, but as yet, no further information has been given.

If Spain’s National Police are to be believed, the arrests were made as part of an investigation that began last October after the Ministry of Culture website was hacked, and that the offenders were traced by incriminating chat logs and web pages.

According to sources, the three suspects were part of the hacking group ‘Anonymous’. The group previously denied any official involvement with the PSN hack, although a police statement suggests Anonymous continues to ‘hold a vast membership of people from various countries around the world, organised into ‘cells’ that share common goals’.

An unnamed source said:  ‘These hackers are activists operating anonymously, but in a coordinated fashion. Commonly referred to as ‘hactivists’, this group of hackers has been cyber-attacking networks and websites around the globe and then gleefully advertising their successes.”

If these are true, and let’s be honest, it is not entirely unfeasible, attacks on corporate companies are likely to be a more of a regular occurrence in the future.

Stay tuned to Frost for more information as it happens…

PSN Update: PSN Back Online In Parts Of U.S.

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The Sony Store and PSN are now back on line in certain parts of the U.S.

In an amazing move that is sure to surprise users of PS3, Sony appears to have brought the deadline of bringing its network back ahead of the speculated deadline of the 31st. And although the PSN is only fully active in the United States right now, UK owners of PS3 can download the latest update (3.61) for their machines today (15th).

In the US, users are requested to change their passwords after installing the update to take advantage of the new features as well as the ‘thank you for your patience package’ offered by Sony after their service was hijacked and taken off line nearly a month ago. More than 77 million users had their personal details stolen.

You can be sure more news will follow. Keep your browser on Frost for all the latest updates.

 

PSN Update 3: Sony Blames Anonymous

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Sony has blamed the online group anonymous for the crash in its network. Anonymous has famously been responsible for defending free speech across the internet. They most recently ran campaigns against companies for withdrawing support from the site Wikileaks.

Sony reported that it had found a file on one of it servers. They claim the file was named anonymous and read, ‘we are legion’.

The group Anonymous had denied any involvement in the data theft. It is thought Anonymous sympathised with three hackers whom Sony sued, this was supposedly the motivation for the attack. The hackers were sued after they successfully found a way to play pirated software on the ps3.

Sony argues that a denial of service attack (which overloads the targets servers with traffic) was undertaken by Anonymous. They claim this caused a distraction allowing the hack.

The explanation is unlikely to impress the millions of gamers who are still unable to play on the PSN network, or the many more millions on Sony Online Entertainment (Which was also taken offline 2 days ago).

Anonymous have strongly denied any involvement in the attack. They argue they would have nothing to gain from attacking a network used by many of their sympathisers.

Experts had previously suggested it was unlikely Anonymous were involved. The majority opinion remains that this action was by major criminals. Sony said today themselves that this was a, ‘highly sophisticated and very professional attack’.

Is blaming Anonymous almost two weeks after the attack (with the network still offline) an increasingly desperate action? Even if Anonymous’ s attack was a distraction it is no excuse for the lack of proper security. Regulators say customer data should have been encrypted. Sony now faces a major fine from the UK information commissioner’s office for failing to secure customer information.

Now the New York attorney general has subpoenaed Sony. The states top law official wants to know more about how hackers were able to access people’s data.

Sony is offering 30 days of PlayStation plus (the paid version of the PlayStation network) to customers as a means of compensation. Users can try out demos, get the latest game upgrades and betas. There will also be a forced Firmware upgrade. This will help patch up the hack and offer increased protection when the network goes back online.

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PSN Update 2: Sony Closes Another Online Service as 100 Million Now Affected

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Sony’s and millions of users nightmare got even worse today as it emerged that not only had the play station network been hacked but also Sony’s Online Entertainment. Sony was forced to close the service which runs various online games.

Worse still the SOE breach was thought to have happened before the PSN network problems which raise numerous questions about Sony’s whole handling of the crisis. One expert said, ‘Inevitably people will be wondering if more is to come’. Names, addresses, emails, DOBs, numbers and this time Sony has also admitted some credit details card (Outside the US) were taken.

On Sunday Sony had said that it hoped to have some services up and running sometime this week, though nothing is certain. Users will need to use two methods to verify their account when PSN goes back online, because of the compromised security. The exact methods remain unclear.

Sony also hit back at reports that millions of credit card details had been taken, saying that too its knowledge this is untrue. They said, ‘there is no evidence our main credit card database was compromised’. We can only hope that everything gets back online as soon as possible.

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