AfterDawn: Tech news

Sony: 'We were hacked for protecting our content'

Written by James Delahunty @ 28 Jun 2011 12:57 User comments (24)

Sony: 'We were hacked for protecting our content' Unpopular Sony Chief Executive asserts connection between anti-piracy measures, and hacks targeting the company.
Howard Stringer told a shareholders' meeting on Tuesday that the company was targeted by hackers because it tried to protect its content against piracy. "We believe that we first became the subject of attack because we tried to protect our IP (intellectual property), our content, in this case videogames," Stringer said.

In April, the PlayStation Network (PSN) service was breached and details of up to 77 million user accounts were leaked. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Stringer finds motive in Sony's protection of its own corporate assets.

"These are our corporate assets, and there are those that don't want us to protect them, they want everything to be free," he said.

You have to wonder if Stringer includes the removal of the OtherOS feature from the PS3 under the umbrella of "protecting corporate assets", because of everything Sony has done in past years, that is clearly the move that riled up more tech-savvy PS3 users than any other.



Stringer also sidestepped a question from a shareholder about the possibility of him standing down so that the company could get a fresh start.

Tags: Sony PSN
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24 user comments

228.6.2011 01:57

Sony was hacked because they are "law suit" crazy. They want to sue everyone they can and they disregard peoples civil rights and side step the law to obtain these lawsuits.

Sony is greedy, anti-consumer, and have no problem screwing the little guy to squeeze a profit. The problem is they finally went after a sect of people that have at their disposal the tools to not just fight back, but to make it count, and make it painful.

Sony just flat out got taught a serious lesson and I hope they learned that people will only take so much before they finally fight back.

To make a long story short they picked the wrong group of people to mess with, these hackers are NOT 83 year old grandmothers you are suing millions for downloading 1 song 10 years ago. These are the kind of people that can and will knock your ass down a rung.

328.6.2011 04:03

What a load...actually, multiple loads...

1.) they were hacked because they were going after Graf, someone who had absolutely nothing to do with piracy or any means of using pirated software. He wasn't even playing with gameOS...other than the few things he had to do to get to linux.

2.)

Quote:
"These are our corporate assets, and there are those that don't want us to protect them, they want everything to be free," he said.

-The cheapest PS3 that had OtherOS cost $100 more than the cheapest PS3 without it...I paid my $100 premium just to use free, open-source software. Yes, I do want it to be free to use free software, especially after I pay a $100 premium for the right to do it.
-Or maybe he meant the CFWs...they contain sony code and if CFWs were sold (instead of forced down your throat against your will), then they might have a case. However, CFWs only work with PS3s, and these updates are free for PS3 owners. Hence, it is not piracy to use them.

Sony talks a big game about IP, but they have done nothing to protect their own IP, they did nothing to protect the financial information of their customers (they even waited to tell us that our credit cards were stolen, and LIED about the details that were stolen to make people think that they were still safe), they have actually encouraged piracy of games, and the topper: the system comes with a CD ripping app. Sony infected countless PCs with malware to prevent CD ripping, and then they put a CD ripping app on their own system!

428.6.2011 08:19
Funktual
Unverified new user

No, you were hacked because you were vulnerable. Dont try to pity yourself.

528.6.2011 11:11

@jookycola... You're absolutely right, up to a point... these guys are so rich & powerful that they are blinded by the very greed that possesses them.

They actually believe they 'own' the consumer & that once we hand them money, it makes them our owner (i.e., we are a slave unto them); an absurd contradiction. Strong words, I know, but "Money" people can get to this 'God King' complex [yes, it is a real complex not a Russellism]. The worst cases you've read about in history as dictators, but you get the idea.

The cyberhoods that went after these tools with the intents of hitting them where it hurts hopefully made a dent, but it isn't even close to being dark. Dawn isn't even close to being in the picture yet, if you catch my attempt at being poetic.

What they see as people trying to "steal" their property, we may see as protecting our investment. $60 bucks on a game to you or me is a phone bill for the month, to one of these guys is a trip to the can. They live out of context to which there is no return. Unless you want to throw in a zombie apocalypse & even then I really don't hold out any hope.

628.6.2011 11:20

telling the truth imo I would do the same probably if some one was making my machine piracy ready. if geohot never went on about the OS it would still be there. @Killerbug its easy to judge when you have no product on the market.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 Jun 2011 @ 11:26

728.6.2011 11:22
smiler123
Inactive

well they didn't protect themselves very well

828.6.2011 14:21

Sony got hacked because they said they couldn't be.
That and like all massive global corporations they strut around trying to pretend that they are really only everybody's best friend 24/7.
It just provokes those that can to try and f**k them about - and it ought to have been obvious to someone (sane) there that in those circumstances it was always likely to happen.

For the sheer bl**dy-mindedness of it and whatever fun there might be in doing it & the fact it will pi$$ Sony off, mightily.
Throw in the amusement of seeing their own absurd hubris blow up in their faces and it's not hard to understand.

Plainly they (must have) placed the security of their paying customers pretty low on their agenda.

The fact is that they - like all big corporations - are nobody's friend, only a naive idiot would imagine that to be true.
They are just yet another big business as crazy & vicious as any other (as the Graf case proves) when it comes down to it.

928.6.2011 15:03

thumbs up JOOKYCOLA & KILLERBUG

1028.6.2011 15:27

@Interestx as long as company sells me what it says on the tin I'm happy I never got a PS3 to use Linux. what your on about makes no sense if they make no money no company.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 Jun 2011 @ 4:04

1128.6.2011 18:34

You were hacked for being Draconian edited by ddp. End of story.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 Jun 2011 @ 11:10

1228.6.2011 19:23

brockie

A lot of people paid a big premium buying early PS3s that made a big deal of their ability to run linux.
It might not mean anything to you but it clearly pi$$ed the wrong people off and they sent Sony some payback for it.

like I said, between that, the treatment of Graf and their ridiculous hubris, they were practically asking for it.

1328.6.2011 20:44

It's not even worth bothering to post the correct info of what has ACTUALLY happened in reference to the timeline of "who did what & why" when it comes to OtherOS, GeoHot, fail0verflow & etc along with "who did what & why" when it comes to the PSN outage. Why? Because people will STILL want to (and choose to) believe in misinformation even when proper, confirmed, legitimate information has been posted and proven dozens of times already here on aD (plus on the net)...so I will just quote a logical post I came across today ~

Quote:
the bottomline is hackers like geohot and the failoverflow live in a bubble of their own where the rules, laws and morals are very different when it comes to technology than anyone else out there.

The main consumer group behind the ps3 are no other than gamers and that is logic which no one can question. the majority of ps3's sold are to this main consumer group. this consumer group dont give 2 $#@!$ about other os. the only thing they care about are games and being able to play online.

the $#@!ards known as hackers chose to speak on behlaf of themselves yet claiming they are doing it for everyone and left the main consumer group without online play for over a month.

geohot didnt listen to the main consumer group, failoverflow didnt listen to us, anonymous didnt listen to us, lulsez didnt listen to us - none of these idiots gave a $#@! as they were after their own wants as supposed to the needs of the everyday gamer.

Are these hackers freedom fighters? hell no. real freedom fighters fight for the right to live and their right to exist. these hackers dont even come out of their shadows and spend most of their lives hiding behind pc's claiming collateral damage as they go along fighitng a war only they care about. their so called people who they are fighting for (us), don't want anything to do with them. the only thing we wish for is for them do is grow up and move on. seems even that is too much to ask for these days.
Everybody loves to skirt around the issue that this was ALL in the name of piracy. PERIOD. People don't have the b@!!$ to admit that nor truly talk about it and that is where their view point or argument falters. THAT is why it's not worth really discussing these topics because nobody wants to admit it. You want to do this, that, or the other to your property ~ that's perfectly fine (I know I sure as hell do) but to tip toe around the REAL underlying meat and potatoes while claiming "wah b..buh..but our rights" is comical BS.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 28 Jun 2011 @ 8:53

1428.6.2011 23:13

If it weren't for Geohot bragging about hacking into the hypervisor through Other OS, Sony wouldn't have freaked out about it. Did they overreact? Quite possibly.

1529.6.2011 00:35

Originally posted by Oner:

Everybody loves to skirt around the issue that this was ALL in the name of piracy. PERIOD.
They don't say that because it isn't true;

Did Sony go after people making CFWs that allowed for piracy? No.

Did Sony go after people making backup managers that enable piracy? No.

Did Sony go after a guy writing linux kernel modifications that allowed linux applications to use the GPU that Sony locked for no reason? Yes.

Personally I use jailbreaking all the time, and not for games. I do have a few of my games ripped to the hard drive, but the other features such as drive marriage, firmware downgrades, FTP access, media player support, and OtherOS get far more use than those games. If there were no way to play copied games, I would still be jailbroken, and Sony would still be attacking the community and hacktivists would still be going after Sony.

Anyway, we still don't know where the original jailbreak tools came from. It seems likely that it either came from the research into returning OtherOS, or that it came from a disgruntled engineer from the OtherOS team. Regardless, the return of OtherOS is a valid reason for jailbreaking. This is because new games will not run on firmware 3.15; by staying there you not only lose PSN, but also support for new games.


Originally posted by brockie:
@Killerbug its easy to judge when you have no product on the market.
I do have a product on the market. It is 100% open and I even posted an assembly guide with 3D CG images in case you don't want to buy it from me.

1629.6.2011 04:14

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Originally posted by Oner:

Everybody loves to skirt around the issue that this was ALL in the name of piracy. PERIOD.
They don't say that because it isn't true;

Did Sony go after people making CFWs that allowed for piracy? No.

Did Sony go after people making backup managers that enable piracy? No.

Did Sony go after a guy writing linux kernel modifications that allowed linux applications to use the GPU that Sony locked for no reason? Yes.

Personally I use jailbreaking all the time, and not for games. I do have a few of my games ripped to the hard drive, but the other features such as drive marriage, firmware downgrades, FTP access, media player support, and OtherOS get far more use than those games. If there were no way to play copied games, I would still be jailbroken, and Sony would still be attacking the community and hacktivists would still be going after Sony.

Anyway, we still don't know where the original jailbreak tools came from. It seems likely that it either came from the research into returning OtherOS, or that it came from a disgruntled engineer from the OtherOS team. Regardless, the return of OtherOS is a valid reason for jailbreaking. This is because new games will not run on firmware 3.15; by staying there you not only lose PSN, but also support for new games.


Originally posted by brockie:
@Killerbug its easy to judge when you have no product on the market.
I do have a product on the market. It is 100% open and I even posted an assembly guide with 3D CG images in case you don't want to buy it from me.
mmmm.

So Geohot didn't release a CFW?

Sony have shut down sites that have/were helping help to jailbreak their PS3 to allow piracy to happen.

They sued Graf after him refusing to stop reverse engineering the PS3 OS, he could be now going to jail for breaking German laws.

The orginal Jailbreak software came from someone leaking the code to firmware 3.15, that's how the USB code came about.

If that code hadn't been released the PS3 most likely wouldn't have been hacked/jailbroken today.

100% open would mean it's public domain and you can't charge for public domain software as it no longer has any owners.

1729.6.2011 05:28

GeoHot did not release a CFW that could play pirated games.

Sony shut down sites that were helping to jailbreak, but not openly pirate sites; they didn't touch those.

They sued graf to stop him from engineering OtherOS...they filed a lawsuit which they were going to stall on forever. By doing this, they would have been able to prevent him from doing something legal by exploiting a loophole in german law. Graf didn't like this, and he considered it his patriotic duty to break this unjust law. This is why he is going to jail.

Someone leaked code...thank you for confirming what I said.

I don't think you understand how open source works; you CAN charge for open source software as long as you make some slight modification. This is why apple is allowed to charge money for OSX in spite of it being nothing more than a mangled version of Linux (open source). Actually, you can charge for it without any modifications if you find someone dumb enough to pay you for it...it is just hard to sell something when others are giving it away for free. You can also charge for public domain hardware, as you are selling a physical item. Also, you can use open source as a sales tool for hardware. For instance, the Arduino family does not even come with software other than an open source bootloader; everything else for it is either open source or user created.

1829.6.2011 10:43

Originally posted by Oner:
but to tip toe around the REAL underlying meat and potatoes while claiming "wah b..buh..but our rights" is comical BS.
Actually Oner what is really "comical BS" is the way corporations insert various idiotic & rarely examined clauses in the End-User License Agreement (EULA) to simple declare themselves owners of everything & immune to any action about it.

It is simply incredible how nobody says jack about this.
Talk about slaves to the corporate machine.

For anyone interested there's a nice article about it here -

How corporations award themselves legal immunityWhether it's in your employment contract or the paperwork for a cell phone, it's odds on that the small print says you can't sue


Still, those wanting to play the supporter/defender of those big corporations (and I mean most if not all of them, not just Sony) can witter on, lost in the detail and unable to see the bigger picture, if they like.

We're being stripped of our rights little by little, beguiled by the shiney shiney.
Our brave new world.

1929.6.2011 11:49

@Interestx... Here, Here... You beat the old man to the punchline. It is our right indeed! Variables change in other countries, that fact remains, but in the US, we are allowed the right to back up our material.

So once again, I "Can't" afford 3 - $60 copies of a game on 3 different consoles to play with my kids (I've been blessed to one degree & cursed in another). So having one of my moronic (grand)kids breaking the game or otherwise rendering it unplayable is a monetary pain.

However, US law also states I'm allowed to back-up; but this is of no concern to any of the manufacturers & (by legal definition) they're violating my constitutional rights by disallowing me the ability to play the back-up.

Lousy example of corporate misuse of law - Mercenary organizations like Black Water conveniently get around Geneva Convention constraints & UCMJ jurisprudence through the very legal tap dancing mentioned by Interestx; thus, operating without legal ramifications. Granted, corporate America isn't inciting murder (yet), but they say if they can't be allowed to protect their clients then how can they do their job? Sound familiar?

Like Black Water, any corporation will leave what they call a rouge agent out to fry, if the legal issue get's to heavy to maintain their status quo. [Say a Sony employee leaks a firmware] But they'll never change their their original objective or what they feel is their upper hand & that even includes government involvement.

No, I'm sorry... The argument..."but to tip toe around the REAL underlying meat and potatoes while claiming "wah b..buh..but our rights" is comical BS. " doesn't get to be Chuck Norris-ed either. You're right, I want my damned PS3 hacked & so hard it makes Sony feel like an Apollo–Soyuz mission took place in their colon. I've not only spent too much money on their crap, but I've RE-SPENT it on the same crap repeatedly.

2029.6.2011 11:58

@ you will never get any real talk to killerbug he is obsessed that Sony are the bad guys.

212.7.2011 00:46

I looked up Howard Stringer on Wikipedia. He is a top notch guy with an interesting bio.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 02 Jul 2011 @ 12:51

223.7.2011 15:51

Let's not forget Sony's hack exploit on retail CD's where people had their computers compromised with a rootkit. So bad the U.S. Pres ... had to slap their hand!
Don't forget to check your Sony Visa card account to see how bad you were compromised. Sony visa card, Sony hacked, what an irony. :)

233.7.2011 19:51

TBH editmon it's not so much the hacking that bothered me in this story (although it is also plain that they were bragging about a woefully insecure system) in some respects that might happen to anyone.

No, it was the way they kept on repeatedly making definitive statements down-playing what had happened, when the must have known otherwise - or at the very least not known definitively one way or the other - and kept on reassuring people that their financial details were perfectly safe when they knew they were not in a position to make that kind of outright statement.
For weeks.
That's unforgivable.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jul 2011 @ 7:53

2422.8.2011 01:53

sony got hacked because they took something (otherOS) away from the people who had purchased it in good faith.

When sony issued rootkits, I would have hacked sony personally if I had that talent.

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