Anonymous suspends PSN attack

by JC Fletcher on Apr 7th 2011 11:00AM

According to AnonNews, a community-driven news site for the nebulous hacktivism cooperative Anonymous, a cease-fire is underway in the group's fight against Sony. Over the last week, Sony's websites, forums, and even the PlayStation Network have been intermittently out of commission, allegedly due to attacks from the group.

A press release on AnonNews says that though the group's campaign against Sony will continue in some form, "Anonymous is not attacking the PSN at this time." The group, according to the announcement, is suspending that effort "until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers."

Even though whoever wrote this might feel that way, of course, there could still be hundreds of thousands of people out there who feel differently and continue attacking PSN. There's no way of knowing how "official" this announcement is, or even how many Anons were into hacking PSN in the first place. The group is, well, anonymous.

[Thanks, Raniz]

Source: AnonNews

Tags: anonymous, ddos, hacking, playstation, ps3, psn

Reader Comments (202)

I guess its time the test the organization's structure

@shinjix2
Organization? Structure?
Just sounds like a bunch of jerks to me.

@shinjix2 What structure? Anyone can claim to be anonymous.

@shinjix2
According to the hacks done on the HBGARY attack that ArsTechnica reported; Anonymous "claims" they have no significant leader, defined structure, or concrete 'ideals'.

As I mentioned yesterday though, the attack on the SONY sites and PSN was really misdirected and really not worth the possible jail time & exorbitant fines. Nor are their efforts anything justified like the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s mentioned by a Joystiq commenter. That had to be the most asinine, jackassed reply on Joystiq this year thus far by that user.

I hope for the sake of those involved with Anonymous, they distance themselves from those who not only hacked SONY the way they did, but threatened attacks on related family as well. Definitely not a crowd worth associating with if that's their goal, as it is no different than terrorism.

@Lerkero

Oh i agree with you whole heartily. I just know their strength is measured by their unity or are they as unorganized as 4-chan. If so they won't be taken seriously.

I hope these attempts fail and they realize how unpopular it is to protect their low-life hacker friends. This seems more life a personal vendetta than a statement against freedoms.

@shinjix2 Anonymous should just keep annoying the Westboro Baptist Church. THEY deserve it!

@shinjix2

Oh, so they finally opened thier thick skulls and realised that they are affecting consumers.....DUH!!! Didn't take them long enough to realise that did it. Stupidity comes in different shapes and sizes obviously ¬_¬

@Obienator

Agreed!

@foxhound

someone said that Anon vs Sony was like the Civil Rights Movement?!?!

oh the hilarity!

@foxhound
We get it, you don't like GeHotz, and you don't like Anons supporting him. But it's rather stupid to keep twisting facts. How in the hell is this in anyway related to terrorism?

Dictionary.com's terrorism: the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

@Obienator Amen to that hahah

@shinjix2

Why do people keep bringing up the civil rights movement -_- I had a massive arguement with a plank in the other thread regarding this. Can we put that aside please, these hackers are nothing like the civil rights movement, they are made up of skinny, nerdy cowards who find the strength and courage they lack in society in the form of a PC. Some people can go out and stand up for thier rights through word of mouth and action, not afraid to show who they are and to go to jail for it if they have to, to which they gain respect as long as they do not jeopardise other's wellbeing, some even go down in history.

None of this going to happen to these hackers, they are prats fighting a stupid cause, they are cowards hidding behind a screen and they and they are lacking the basic logic to see that they are turning more people against them then winning respect.

@PR0F3TA
Yep, he compaired the DDoS to the blacks at the woolsworth counter. In his mind, refusing to leave unless they were served was the same as blocking the access to customers a online service because someone outside group didn't like that service.

@chichok

Wasn't Anon directly threatening Sony employees? More than a few received threatening emails and phone calls often in the middle of the night claiming to be Anon people. Likewise, various free services like UPS boxes were ordered in huge amounts to annoy and disrupt these peoples lives. While this isn't exactly suicide bomber tier behavior, how is this not terrorism?

@Chichok

Chichok you are so godamn stupid its unbelievable, what in the hell do you think they are doing this for? to not intimidate them? the definition you provided just proved the point. Please dont make anymore comments, everyone of them has been completely idiotic.

@Obienator

I really wish there was a +infinity button for your comment!!!

@SheppyReturns boxes and phone calls are terrorism folks.

every wannabe terrorist pick up your latest Parade magazine and order 50,000 'Gone With The Wind' Commerative Genuine Porcelain Dolls to your local librarian to show her who is boss.

@Chichok

Dictionary.com's terrorism: the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

have you been paying attention? anon is using threats
("Now you will feel the wrath of anonymous. Your official websites will be taken offline, including the playstation store.")
in order to coerce sony to meet their terms.
("These attacks will continue untill we are completely satisfied with the outcome.")

even if it's just a little silly when you think about it, it fits the definition of terrorism you provided.

@shinjix2 They remind me of Mad Gear from Final fight. Wanting to do things as they please. Where is Cody and Guy when you need them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLGquPLLHpk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

@shinjix2

"I hope these attempts fail and they realize how unpopular it is to protect their low-life hacker friends."

i hate to break it to you, but outside of gaming sites like Joystiq, most people don't find fault with Geohot's actions. that's not to say they don't think what Anon did is at all ok.

@maveric101

Just gaming sites? :/ Maybe I've been on different media and tech sites to you, no matter where I go there is a majority annoyance with George. Its just that gamers happen to hate him the most.

Except for iPhone jailbreak fans.

Good, hope they all abide by this cease fire as all I see this hurting is psn users. And I'd like to try my old copy of red dead redemption online as I just finished the story.

They better stop...it's annoying as hell getting kicked off and not being able to log on.

I hope all the parties involved in this get what's coming to them. Maliciously attacking the PSN doesn't really help the cause of "Let us put whatever we want on our consoles," it only strengthens the reasoning as to why they took out Linux in the first place.

@JinZX1 all the parties involved includes Sony fyi. They bit off more than they could chew.

@Jack Kevorkian
No, they focused their case against a very small group of what, 2 people? Not their fault those two were stupid enough to publicly release an encryption key.

Any company would have sued them for that.

@mrantimatter
C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B

This is what Sony is suing over - an outdated rootkey. The key is worthless now as the last firmware update changed it. The reason you are seeing cheaters on PSN is because the cheaters have ways to login with custom firmware. If Sony would just fix this problem, most of the cheaters would go away. Sony shouldn't be wasting their time suing two individuals who were just experimenting and playing around.

Hackers aren't punishing Sony, they're punishing their fellow gamers. Sony personal get paid to fix these problems, while us hard-working folk have very little free time in the evening to come home and play with our friends over PSN. If we can't log in, it's a direct attack on us... the consumer.

@(Unverified) i hope they understand there would be no way to attack sony without it affecting the users... most attacks they can do will affect the users in some way, i may admit the reasoning behind the attack may be just, howeves somethings cannot be faught without making the public suffer in some way

@Teus

Right, but (excuse the war terminology) there's really no need for "collateral damage." There are many other fronts to fight on against Sony (i.e. websites, individual accounts, etc.). They're carpet bombing a network in the aim to attack only a few people. It's dumb.

@(Unverified) THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!!

@(Unverified) They could burn a few thousand PS3 manuals

Anonymous is getting so childish with their "wars". It has become: "look at us, we are so cool. Hey, pay attention to me!" Its sad to see what it has become.

@Amish Gramish

You sound like a drone -_-

@Amish Gramish

Hey look! I'm posting with my real name!

Also, the whole "we are legion" shtick makes you sound like a tool.

@Colin

Haha, why did I think of Fallout: New Vegas when he went on about being part of a legion.

@polatdk
So...it has become "something" that did "something" you don't agree with? That's a shame. I'm not sure what's weirder: the fact your disappointed now, or the fact that you weren't disappointed earlier. Anyone who has changed their opinion of Anonymous over this is...I don't know.. deluded? a hypocrite? Something.. They remind me of people who think a bully is really cool when he is picking on the dorky kids, and then suddenly think he's not cool at all when he starts picking on someone they like. The problem there is the bully was a bully the whole time. The only people who flip-flopped were the ones cheering him on, who now disapprove. Fair weather friends, guess.

@Amish Gramish
Forgive WHAT?
Forget WHAT?
Its nice to know theres a legion of idiots.

"ceasefire". That makes me sick. Try living in Libya or the Ivory Coast at the moment.

Anyway, I hope the overweight virgins have had their fun and have been told off by their parents.

@Hong Dong

Seriously? Are we going to start this?

Next thing you know people will consider the term "owned" offensive because there are some places where people are still literally owned by other people.

I haven't noticed any problems with my connection to PSN, but the whole idea that attacking PSN users punishes Sony for prohibiting homebrew on Playstations is absolutely ridiculous.

@Ryan P

So I'm not the only one. I never really had Amy issues with the PSN this last week.

It ia just so unfortunate to know there's so many people to be so misguided like this

Logging in is still iffy right now. If you get on, just stay logged in. I turned my PS3 off for about 10 minutes and couldn't get back on.

@bigwhiteyeti

Same here.

@bigwhiteyeti

I picked up a new PS3 today as a gift and was able to log on and download tons of stuff, however the trophies weren't able to sync.

Otherwise, it was solid for me.

They must have run out of Hot Pockets.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

DAMMIT, MOM!

@Uncle Jesse
at least it wasnt chocolate milk

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze =)

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Doritos to the rescue!

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Anonymous suspends PSN attack

Reader Comments (202)

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:04AM shinjix2 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:19AM Lerkero said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:24AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:32AM foxhound said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:35AM shinjix2 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 12:19PM Obienator said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 12:23PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 12:35PM shinjix2 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:12PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:15PM Chichok said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:19PM Cadattack123 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:31PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:33PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:36PM SheppyReturns said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:52PM xenophy said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:52PM SmoothC911 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:57PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 2:33PM prime8 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 2:57PM Metalfacedoom said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 3:29PM maveric101 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 3:39PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:05AM shaggyc said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:05AM psnkillstrike said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:07AM JinZX1 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:28PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 3:56PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Apr 8th 2011 2:21AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:07AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:18AM Teus said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:21AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 8:27PM DigitalImpulse said

Posted: Apr 10th 2011 7:44PM Mazrael said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:07AM polatdk said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 12:27PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 12:54PM Colin said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:33PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:41PM sigma8 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 2:43PM Cavall said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:08AM Hong Dong said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:22AM Vcize said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:08AM Ryan P said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 1:06PM KinseySS said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:09AM bigwhiteyeti said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:13AM theSkillfull1 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 5:18PM Nook said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:10AM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:13AM Uncle Jesse said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:18AM Protege420 said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:33AM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 11:43AM CaptainProtonX said

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