Anonymous vs Sony

Members of the internet movement Anonymous have temporarily suspended their attacks on various Sony web sites following their recent declaration to take on Sony for the company's abuse of the "judicial system in an attempt to censor information on how your products work". Anonymous is reportedly seeking to punish Sony for its actions in attempting to prosecute George Hotz, aka Geohot, and Alexander Egorenkov, aka Graf_Chokolo, for publishing information of how the PlayStation 3 is secured and how to digitally sign software to run on it. The Anonymous action was labelled Operation Payback Sony (OPSony). "Operation Payback" was the name of the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks staged by Anonymous against Visa, MasterCard. It was initiated as a response to the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the removal of payment services for his defence fund.

During the first phase of the denial of service (DoS) attacks on some Sony sites, another group named SonyRecon reportedly emerged. This group appears to be involved in what are known as "Dox" attacks, setting out to find personal details of senior Sony managers and, according to reports, was suggesting that those details be used to harass the individuals by either ordering parcel boxes via UPS or Fedex, placing adverts on online classifieds service Craigslist seeking "casual encounters" and giving the target's details so as to direct unwanted attention to them. SonyRecon is also said to have planned attacks on "the judge and Sonys lawyers", calling them "all valid targets".

After initial denial of service attacks upon the PlayStation Network (PSN), Anonymous issued an "OPSony update" saying that it has suspended it's action "until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers". It also distanced itself from SonyRecon saying the "different operations are 'run' by different people" and that it would "be a mistake to assume that the same individuals are responsible for every action taken". Anonymous added that it would continue its campaign against Sony "until we are satisfied with the outcome".

(djwm)