Microsoft treats kid hacker with kid gloves in wake of PSN debacle

by JC Fletcher on May 29th 2011 2:30PM

Soon after Sony's aggressive pursuit of hacker George Hotz -- and potentially in an act of retaliation -- other hackers shut the whole PlayStation Network down and made off with millions of users' data.

Microsoft seems to have learned a valuable lesson from that ("don't incite hackers"). During a keynote presentation at the Bank of Ireland Business Week, MS's Ireland General Manager Paul Rellis revealed that the company is dealing with a 14-year-old who hacked Modern Warfare 2 not by suing him, but by working with him. According to the Herald, Rellis said that Microsoft was helping the youngster "use his skills for legitimate purposes."

It's a happy ending in this case, but we doubt this will work every time. If you get all up in big companies' systems, you're still a lot more likely to end up with police confiscating your computer than with a cool internship.

Via: VentureBeat
Source: Herald

Tags: activision, hacker, hacking, infinity-ward, ireland, microsoft, microsoft-ireland, Modern-Warfare-2, xbox

Reader Comments (72)

fake story, http://kotaku.com/5805742/microsoft-is-helping-an-xbox-live-hacker-develop-his-talent

@Aperture Glad it's fake. People should not be rewarded for breaking the law. Nobody should try to appease the cyber-terrorists that get sand in their vaginas after one of their fellow criminals gets caught.

@Aperture WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH CYBER TERRORISTS.

@The Wicker Man GET OFF MY PLANE

@Aperture

Glad its fake too... the last thing this world needs is a bunch of hackers out there trying to build a profile for future employment.

@Draco

They would just end up stealing each others resumes to prove they are the best...*insert Benny Hill Theme tune*

@TheDarkWayne

GET OFF MY SERVER

@Aperture
LOL. Great journalistic reporting skills, Joystiq. Makes me glad I don't even need to read News of the World, the Sun or NY Post for my fix.

@The Wicker Man

I don't negotiate with terrorists.............BECAUSE I AM ONE!

@Aperture
Even if this is a fake story, it wouldn't have surprised me if it HAD turned out true. Anyone remember the Chevron 7 guys that hacked Windows Phone? Microsoft invited them to come check out the stuff that was in the works and so on rather than suing the shit out of them.

@Demaar

The thing is, phishing (which is what this kid was doing) is leagues away from legitimate hacking. It's even below the kinds of stuff script kiddies pull in terms of technical requirements.

That was the first sign that this was fake. Had this been some sort of legitimate hack on Microsoft or XBL without ill intent (i.e. white-hatting), it'd probably have gone down in a similar fashion to the W7 phone deal.

I really hate linking to Kotaku, but I'm not about to let a false story like this pass as legitimate news.

@Aperture
Seriously:

"UPDATE - Microsoft has since contacted Kotaku to inform us that the original report is inaccurate.

The comments attributed to Microsoft Ireland's Managing Director Mr. Paul Rellis, when speaking at a business event last week, are inaccurate. He never said anything close to what is being reported in some Irish media. Mr. Rellis was commenting on various developers and hobbyists using drivers that allow other devices to display the raw data output from Kinect for Xbox 360 sensors. Microsoft can also confirm that the company has not offered to mentor a 14-year-old from Tallaght who purportedly was related to a phishing scheme."

@Demaar

Those guys actually hacked the phone.

This noob just spammed messages saying give me your details pl0x.

@RogueJedi86

Why was I downvoted? Didn't anyone see the fake promo for a "Childrens Hospital" spin-off? Rob Riggle was playing as a bad cop character who said that. Everyone else was quoting funny movies. Was mine too obscure for you people? It's not like Childrens Hospital aired on Adult Swim or anything(okay it did).

Okay I over-reacted, but it's easy to see mine as an honest quote when taken out of context of the show. Like Dark Wayne's "Get off my plane!".

@Aperture Nice link dude. I'm Irish and will tell all of you now that this story is complete bulls##t because it was in the Herald newspaper which is undoubtedly one of the worst tabloid pieces of nonsense in existence. Take it down Joystiq.

I hope MS realizes that most 14 year olds just follow instructions off of the internet and don't actually know what they are doing.

@Diebold

Yes, I believe we need to start making the distinction between actual hacking and using other people's cheats/hacks/work

@Diebold

I'm surprised Microsoft doesn't realize that someone playing online stating that they're from Microsoft and will give you free Microsoft Points if you give them your account info and credit card number is NOT a hacker. They are just scammers and their victims are just plain dumb.

"a 14-year-old who hacked Modern Warfare 2"

Microsoft's internship program is about to get a lot bigger if they do this.

Lol nice, so now everyone is going to hack Microsoft to work with them :D

How was it even a hack? I bet he is just a 10th pristeige 1200 MSP spamming noob.

"Peace in our time"

Microsoft is the Chamberlain of the gaming industry.

@Pure Black World Tendency Lol! That was the best history reference on Joystiq today!

@The Wicker Man

Oops seems story is fake so I might have out-chamberlained myself there. But they DID give Geohotz a free phone for hacking the PS3.

14, he's not even supposed to be playing the game if this had been a Rockstar game the "hacker" would have sued them.

On one end it's good to see them not inciting the fire, pouring gasoline over it trying to stop it simply because it is a liquid.

On another end you don't want to make it look like crime does pay where if you hack you get into talks with MS or maybe a job and be set for life.

It's strange MS had done this before embracing or at least not raging out at hackers who jailbroke the windows phone 7. It almost seems like bizzaro-land type news when you read it.

The story is false, but Microsoft has done this before. They treated the first guy to jailbreak the WP7 phone to sit in at a conference in Redding, and a t-shirt that said ," I jailbroke the wp7 phone and all I got was this lousy t-shirt".

@LinkRazr

Where did you read this?

I was going to say the same thing. Letting people audition for jobs by hacking is idiotic and only perpetuates the act. That's like hiring terrorists who get through security channels to help beef up security.

@ijustw1n Jailbreaking, is not the same as hacking data servers.

@AFATALERR0R Dumbass.

He's dumb and the best you could do to articulate your thoughts was one, two-syllable swear word.

Aw how cute. Microsoft thinks they are better at dealing with them.

@The Only Girl They need to hire you to monitor their chat logs.

@The Wicker Man
And this will prove that Microsoft can stop hackers...how? Why was a 14-yr-old even playing a M game, anyway?

@The Only Girl

Because his parents knowingly bought it for him? It's not illegal or even wrong for an underage person to play a mature game. It's only against the rules for them to buy the game for themselves.

@maxxgold Hackers need to be bitchslapped across the face. If anything Sony didn't go far enough with Hotz; they should of litigated him into oblivion.

I blame Youtube for our children's destruction.

@Dance Mofo Yes, Teach them all and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside. Give them a sense of pride, to remind them how they used to be.

NO TICKET!

Even if this is fake, kid hackers are nasty little brats. The only reason they do what they do is to have the feeling of rebelliousness, to stick it to the man.

@Shadowbender
And to probably make up for a lack of ...growth. Somewhere.

@The Only Girl

Har.

@AFATALERR0R

Take a step back and get out of the butthole of foolishness. How on Earth is a company who don't want some hudlums lurking around their system a suicide? I smell delusional fanboy.

1) This is fake, as seen by the first post
2) Even if you're just reprinting what the Herald said, linking the lawsuit of Hotz to the PSN attacks is both incredibly stupid and completely baseless.

Just google "first to jailbreak WP7 phone" and you'll see a bunch of stories on the guy and his team. Microsoft also reached out to Geohot, offering to give him a free phone to encourage him to create programs that had not yet thought of.

@LinkRazr makes me wanna believe that microsoft hired some hackers to hack the psn network.

@AFATALERR0R

As a note to parents and future parents, this is what happens when you let a television raise your child.

If he rapes some kid next maybe they will put him in charge of a day care?

Well that WAS to Shadowbender. Reply fail.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Microsoft treats kid hacker with kid gloves in wake of PSN debacle

Reader Comments (72)

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:33PM Aperture said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:58PM NathanDTS said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:04PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:21PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:28PM Draco said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:49PM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: May 29th 2011 4:01PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: May 29th 2011 4:58PM metamorphic said

Posted: May 29th 2011 7:19PM RogueJedi86 said

Posted: May 29th 2011 9:31PM Demaar said

Posted: May 29th 2011 9:39PM Aperture said

Posted: May 30th 2011 12:34AM PN04 said

Posted: May 30th 2011 2:08AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: May 30th 2011 2:19AM RogueJedi86 said

Posted: May 30th 2011 6:48AM BrianZeluz said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:33PM Diebold said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:36PM eliteghost said

Posted: May 29th 2011 10:15PM teeftwo said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:33PM AutobotIronhide said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:36PM Koya said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:36PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:05PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:41PM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:43PM kyte420 said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:47PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: May 29th 2011 2:50PM LinkRazr said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:34PM Shadowbender said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:24PM ijustw1n said

Posted: May 30th 2011 1:04AM ie5x said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:00PM NathanDTS said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:49PM McDude said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:01PM The Only Girl said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:06PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:46PM The Only Girl said

Posted: May 29th 2011 4:16PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:01PM NathanDTS said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:16PM Dance Mofo said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:22PM Dance Mofo said

Posted: May 29th 2011 10:00PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:22PM Shadowbender said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:48PM The Only Girl said

Posted: May 29th 2011 4:28PM FakeKevinButler said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:32PM Shadowbender said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:34PM PointlessPuppies said

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Posted: May 29th 2011 4:18PM hapa77 said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:37PM Mister Darcy said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:41PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 29th 2011 3:58PM LinkRazr said

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