Sony Hacks Continue: PlayStation Hit By Lizard Squad Attack 170
An anonymous reader writes Hacker group Lizard Squad has claimed responsibility for shutting down the PlayStation Network, the second large scale cyber-attack on the Sony system in recent weeks. Although apparently unrelated, the outage comes just weeks after the much larger cyber-attack to the tech giant's film studios, Sony Pictures, which leaked confidential corporate information and unreleased movies.The group claiming to have taken down PSN today, Lizard Squad, first appeared earlier this year with another high-profile distributed denial of service attack on Xbox Live and World of Warcraft in August. The hacker collective claimed that this attack was just a 'small dose' of what was to come over the Christmas period.
Sony needs to invest in their IT (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sony needs to invest in their IT (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you kidding?
Laziness and greed, and an indifference to security.
This seems like a recurring thing ... I'm pretty sure Sony has been hacked several times over the last few years.
If security doesn't make you money, and you have no penalty for being incompetent at it ... why spend money on it?
When companies start having penalties for getting hacked and leaking people's information, they might do something. In the mean time, if all they have to say is "oops, sorry" don't expect anything to change.
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Sony doesn't care about their security. Their "Action Cam" comes with a disclaimer saying that the device isn't secure and if you connect it to a wireless network anyone has access to all of its functionality.
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Re:Sony needs to invest in their IT (Score:4, Insightful)
Most electronics that connect to your wireless network has this vulnerability.
Are you really bashing Sony for warning the users about this fact?
I thought it'd be a good thing to warn the user, so they might secure it themselves.
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Most electronics that connect to your wireless network has this vulnerability.
Are you really bashing Sony for warning the users about this fact?
Nope, they're bashing Sony for not securing it. That "most electronics" has the same flaw doesn't excuse them.
I thought it'd be a good thing to warn the user, so they might secure it themselves.
It's a Sony product, so they won't be able to do that. They best they can do is firewall it off.
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Just look at this dumb angry clown's post history and you'll see exactly why Slashdot is dead.
Sorry, we can't see it, you didn't log in so we don't know who you are.
A dimwitted and bitter Xbox fanboy still crying over Sony beating the shit out of his precious piece of shit Xbox over the past fourteen years going on a posting rampage over some script kiddies lame DDOS.
Just a week or two ago I deleted my Microsoft account, because the last thing I was using it for was XBL. Their site was failing on all browsers (including Aieeee!) to the extent that I could not deal with terminating my subscription, there was nowhere to get a phone number, the chat support link didn't work. So I'm selling my Xbox 360. Want to buy it?
What is sad is there actually use to be actual smart people here on Slashdot. Now no one is left except dumb angry trolls like drinkypoo.
What is sad is that you're biting the hand that's feeding you. I'm helping to keep this
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When companies start having penalties for getting hacked and leaking people's information, they might do something.
It's also too easy for the attackers to hide in Internet.
What good is it for companies to just build increasingly stronger and more complex security fortresses and still be at the complete mercy of sudden anonymous attacks from unknown directions. That's just crappy design of Internet.
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They didn't specify the attack, but a DDoS attack (part of this group's MO) is notoriously difficult to counter because it relies on the lack of security of the user community rather than the company itself. They use, say, a half million computer bot network to flood the target servers with requests. While you can theoretically block request flooding, sheer numbers can still overwhelm systems.
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They are known for high level DDoS attacks so I assume that's what it was.
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You mean when company officers start having penalties for getting hacked and leaking people's information, they might do something. Otherwise, the officers are likely to pass the buck to anyone but themselves. Boards' of directors are also complicit in the low value companies put on their customers' information. Suing the company won't really do it, customers should be able to sue the officers and boards. This fiction that companies are individuals should be taken seriously. They are collective individuals
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1) remember that computers (especially networked ones) are in effect infinite state machines. There are thousands maybe millions of ways of hacking these, and it looks more and more like an inside job. Remember that one of the tradeoffs of protecting against an inside job makes it a P.I.T.A. to get anything done inside.
2) Also remember that current atmosphere for public companies is, hell even if you're lucky, not past the next quarterly report and a good chance no farther than the daily stock price. Sec
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The first major hack to SONY came two weeks after they laid off their security people. what a coincidence. And this malware was targeted... It doesn't take much to see that it's been a long running inside job from people who were once SONY security people.
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To be fair this latest attack was just a DDOS, only so much you can do about that.
Lizard Squad aren't real hackers like whoever carried out the first attack. Lizard Squad are just a bunch of DDOS kiddies without any real actual skills.
You're right all the same of course, but there's only so much Sony can do about the DDOS attacks- they've just been timed to conflate it with Sony's genuine security breaches, Lizard Squad are basically trying to look cool by leeching off the success of whoever did the real ha
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Someone set us up the bomb!
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If it's a DDoS you can't stop it from the server side. It's not a software issue. Sony alone cannot resolve the issue. I'm no DDoS avoidance guru but I understand enough about it to know it can't be solved at their server level.
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Seriously, how can a billion dollar company that does tons of computer stuff not have a near-impregnable website?
Big corporations employ people who understand security and they certainly do do some things securely.
However, they do not like the consequences of ensuring security in customer facing things like web sites. Getting in depth security review of each change gets right in the way of making rapid updates. This is understood. It is not just incompetents haphazardly creating security holes with no one paying attention. It is a case that it was decided to favour speed over security.
Sony seems to have failed in prot
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Because they are both stupid and greedy. Sony is not the only well-known company where any halfway competent attacker can just walk in. Most companies do not get attacked, because nobody with the required skills cares enough to do it.
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They weren't hacked. They were ddos'ed. This was not a hack. Bad title, bad summary.
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They were hacked a few days ago. I was referring to that. But DDoS resilience is part of any sane IT security strategy.
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They weren't hacked as much as someone parked on the bridge and claimed to have blown it up. A DDOS attack is not a hack, it's just drowning out other communications.
This is the same as someone going into a large room with a megaphone and yelling, then claiming they killed everyone in the room despite everyone still being very much alive.
Lizard Squad? (Score:2, Insightful)
MIght as well just call it "We're 16, still live with our parents, have no life away from the computer and play too much WoW Group"
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MIght as well just call it "We're 16, still live with our parents
Well, not everyone was running their own company at 17 like you.
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wait, you weren't living at home with your parents when you were 16?
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Who else is hurt by it? Their stockholders? They OWN Sony. The employees? They ARE Sony. Playstation owners? Serves them right for buying Sony equipment.
There are no innocents here.
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Fuck that evil God damned Sony and the ass it rode in on, the fucking bastards. DIE, SONY, DIE!!!
Yeah, it was out of order but seriously, chill the fuck out, I'd hate to see how you get if anyone actually does anything to you. I bet you're the kind to chase some little old lady 10 miles screaming bloody murder because she cut you off on the motorway,
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Sony is hardly a "little old lady" and ruining someone's computer is hardly "cutting someone off"; it's a felony that should have been prosecuted, but wasn't. The guy who burglarized my house a couple of years ago is lucky the cops caught him before I did.
If Sony had repaid me for the damage and apologized I would forgive them, but if you want something from me you have to ASK. They didn't.
Again, fuck Sony, I wouldn't feel sorry for the asshole who broke into my house if someone broke into his. And I don't
Oh get over it (Score:2)
It was 10 years ago. Lots of large companies do lots of suspect things and you never hear about it. You might think its karma for Sony getting hacked but what about all the innocent people who get hurt too? Or is that ok because they're just "collateral damage"? If thats the case then I suggest you get down off your high horse because the moral highground its standing on is quicksand.
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Why should I forgive them just because they are large companies?
I'm sorry, but that makes no sense to me. I can't do much, as I restrict myself to legal protests, but if someone else wishes to take the chance of doing more, I'm not going to condemn them.
Anyone who supports Sony is less than innocent. Anyone who actively supports them is an accomplice (presumably) after the fact. That the law won't punish them does not exonerate them. For that matter, my ideas of justice are not based on laws that are no
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Do yourself a favour and grow TF up.
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So you believe that to forget history is to grow up?
If not, then I don't understand the premise of your assertion.
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Yes, and I'm not pleased with Cher, either. At the time Sony wasn't a media company, but they merged with, and were taken over by the management of, one of the lobbiests sponsoring the bill.
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It was 10 years ago.
So what? They have shown no indication that they will become less evil. Why would you buy computer equipment from a company willing to hack its customers?
Lots of large companies do lots of suspect things and you never hear about it.
I'll know about it if I'm one of their victims. And, so it's "well, everybody else shoplifts and teases nerds, why shouldn't I?" Just because someone else is being evil gives you no right to be evil as well.
You might think its karma for Sony getting hacked but
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I think removing the other-OS functionality from the PS3 was far worse and a large part of the reason hackers like to target Sony.
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Sony's sins go far beyond XCP and OtherOS.
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No one is going to prison anymore, nor is there any reason for anybody to hold a grudge with what happened then, which is a decade ago.
Of course there is a reason. They got away with it, so they'll do it again. That's reason enough to wish for something to happen to someone, so help reduce the recurrence of such events. Sony continues to abuse users because they can, and advertising still makes people buy shit they don't want or need, so they should be held accountable.
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Kinda like rioters and looters we've seen recently, and those inciting a riot.
They get away with it...lather, rinse, repeat.
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Kinda like rioters and looters we've seen recently, and those inciting a riot.
You mean Wall Street? Yeah, I'm sick of them looting our economy, too. That makes me want to riot, so it must be incitement.
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Are you seriously saying that Sony should be held under threat for that rootkit thing to the end of world, because you believe there is some kind of constant risk of them doing it again?
Until someone is actually punished for it? Yes. Yes I am. Why should corporations be permitted to break the law and get away with it, and then go on to do it again? That is, after all, the pattern. Ignore the lessons of history at the usual peril.
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"Someone"? Sorry, but that's unacceptably vague. Try responsible parties, including management, and I'll agree with you. Scapegoats don't do a thing for me.
OTOH, I'd also be satisfied if the corporation was just put out of business.
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Sony's CEO resigned over the rootkit thing, and the DoJ basically told them that if it happened again, there would be no Sony in America. That's what powerful incentives look like! Sony took that quite seriously.
DoJ found that it wasn't the case that Sony execs set out to break the law here, but added that if this sort of thing happened again, they'd assume it was intentional.
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What in the world are you talking about? If Sony's CEO resigned, it certainly wasn't over the rootkit. In fact, the executive at BMG responsible for the rootkit was promoted [wikipedia.org] by Sony to President of Corporate Development and New Businesses, and later given a seat on the board at Bertelsmann.
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The DoJ hit Sony with a fine large enough to make Sony miss its earnings significantly for the year, which lead tot the CEO leaving. There is a criminal justice system for corporations: gross negligence awards, and other eye-watering fines.
But of course, Sony is an example of problems with Japanese corporate culture and legal system more than our own. I do wonder whether the DoJ would have been so aggressive if a US company had done that.
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The DoJ hit Sony with a fine large enough to make Sony miss its earnings significantly for the year, which lead to the CEO leaving
I can't find any other references or details about this at all. Do you have any links to more info?
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] says only that "The US Department of Justice (DOJ) made no comment on whether it would take any criminal action against Sony." They did apparently have to pay the State of Texas $750K, which at Sony's scale is about the same magnitude as a parking ticket.
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Doesn't hacking your toaster require skills with BSD? That's the only OS *I've* ever seen running on a toaster. (Don't remember the year, but it was at the West Coast Computer Faire.)
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Denial of service is as much of a hack as unplugging your PC is. Sorry, but no hack, just children. Most people grown out of the anarchy phase of their life when their balls drop. It seems these manchildren haven't yet. Maybe if they put themselves to doing something productive and stopped living in their mothers basement they may stop being so angry.
LS (Score:3)
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Isn't this the same group/person that called in a fake bomb threat on an airplane not too long ago? I'm surprised they're still walking free.
Yes. I think it's reasonable to conclude that they are located outside of the USA or any country friendly to it and thus can't be brought to justice. However, based on what I've seen on some published court reports, the wheels of justice turn really slowly on criminal activities over computers even when the perps live in the USA, so there is also a chance that the US government actually knows who they are and can get to them but is just taking its time to do so.
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There's another option, if they're actually good at it, and that's the government will offer them a job (with the condition you'll sit in a cell for decades if you don't take it)
They don't do that for script kiddies like LS though, those people just get jailed and forgotten forever.
Hara Kiri (Score:2, Interesting)
What I don't understand is that Sony is headquartered in Japan. JAPAN. Their work ethic and honor against disgrace is known the world over even today.
You'd think they would be able to put security over profit. And you'd think someone would have to commit seppuku over this already. I expect to open the news and at least a dozen pinkies got clipped or something. Christ.
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Maybe the Japanese are more like Romulans or Ferengi than Klingons after all.
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So I guess that makes the Federation itself Canadian, eh?
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but...but...we clothe our women
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Of course you do. That's 50% more customers for the clothing industry.
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Honor my ass. Their notion of honor is to not look bad, not being bad has nothing to do with it.
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That is not honor. That is reputation.
Since when... (Score:5, Informative)
Since when is a DDOS a hack?
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Since shut up we need clickbait headlines, that's when.
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Calling it a hack is like listing the body count on a mass shooting, it makes great headlines and guarantees repeat business.
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It's not but that's what Lizard Squad are counting on. Lizard Squad are just a bunch of DDOS script kiddies and nothing more. They're trying to look cooler than they are by piggy backing off the success of the actual hack on Sony the other day by pretending they're somehow continuing Sony's "security woes". They're not. They're just doing what anyone with enough dollars to hire a botnet for a few hours could do.
It's still the hack from the other day that should be in the news as that was a big deal carried
a fucking waste (Score:3)
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FF14 has actually gotten a lot better after the revamp, and it's on PC, PS3 and PS4 - which means odds are decent that the OP plays the PSN version instead of the PC version.
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Also, it keeps getting updates because people keep paying the sub fee.
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The sick sad part of this is that they think they are fighting the corporate power or something, but in reality all they will be doing is ruining Christmas vacation for many gamers everywhere.
Stop giving your money to Sony. It has been conclusively proven that they will not protect the interests that you've demonstrated by giving them money. Then you won't have your Christmas vacation "ruined" because you couldn't avoid your loved ones with a video game.
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I don't disagree with your comment but it is slightly ignorant. Gaming is not any different than hobbies such as puzzle making or board games. People do whatever makes them happy when spending time inside. That's not to say they won't go out and make a snow man, play hockey or go skiing. But once the evening settles there's nothing better than a 2 hours playing online games with friends.
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Dunno, some of us work a lot and have very little down time throughout the year. There's nothing wrong with looking forward to 2 weeks of uninterrupted gaming. Especially if they are going to disrupt social (online) gaming between friends. For many of us there's little/no distinction between having friends over to visit, and playing an MMO with friends on Ventrilo/Steam/Skype.
Even some people who are around people day in / day out might just like the quiet time playing a single player (always online...) gam
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Not dead yet....getting better.
Targets (Score:3)
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The problem is that that stuff is actually hard.
Aiming a botnet (paid-for or otherwise) at a company can be a single-click affair if you go to the right places on the Internet.
Stealing code from a virus that's managed - accidentally - to get into Sony is not hard either.
However, making a targeted attack, into the secure areas, not getting caught? That's difficult even in the most lax of scenarios, precisely because more attention is paid to it.
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Seriously, target the companies and not the users.
You can't destroy Sony without stopping people from giving them money. If your goal is to destroy Sony, your only option is to attack their cash flow. Making the system unavailable during high demand periods is a way to decrease customer confidence and the likelihood that they will give their disposable income to Sony.
Yes, they're assholes, but what they are doing does male sense, and suggesting otherwise is ignorant.
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Seriously, target the companies and not the users.
You can't destroy Sony without stopping people from giving them money. If your goal is to destroy Sony, your only option is to attack their cash flow. Making the system unavailable during high demand periods is a way to decrease customer confidence and the likelihood that they will give their disposable income to Sony.
Yes, they're assholes, but what they are doing does male sense, and suggesting otherwise is ignorant.
Yeah, it makes sense in a way, but running a ddos is the most basic, least imaginative thing you can do and annoys the customers much more than the company, and turns potential supporters of your cause against you. At this point sony have lost nothing other than a tiny consumer confidence (of which they had fuck all to begin with anyway). They will probably sell the exact same amount of playstations and the people who were unable to buy games off psn will just do it when it's back up. These lizard kids real
This makes me wonder how long it can last... (Score:3)
How long can a private company be on "everyone's radar" before they can no longer do business? This may not be successful, but eventually there will be cases of large corporations basically unable to do business because a relative few can wield a lot of "digital power" over a company with a large presence.
I am not going to overstate the power of "hacktivists"/DDOS/Botnet but suppose these actions continue, how much will it cost Sony to combat this kind of thing? $1,000,000 for every dollar spent hacking them? It seems like there is a limit.
If enough people want a corporation wiped from the internet, there doesn't really seem like a practical way to survive. Not fearmongering, or cheering against Sony specifically... just wondering.
XBOX Live (Score:3)
Here is their twitter: Lizard Patrol [twitter.com].
They have been attacking XBOX Live randomly for the last 3 weeks which takes down everyone's (including mine) Netflix, games, etc. It's pretty annoying. They even re-tweeted the ankle bracelet on one of their members who is under house arrest after being released from jail. I don't know how they can get away with the blatant DDoS attacks.
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Sucks to be you then, I mean, 1 night of not being able to use a service doesn't seem to be an adequate reason to live in the dark ages of not being able to access media archives far larger than you'll ever afford or be able to store at home and offline.
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F&*# Sony and F$&# Lizard Squad (Score:2)
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I'm torn ... on the one hand, yeah, childish vandals.
On the other hand, if Sony is not going to care about their security, they deserve this.
Way too many companies just simply don't seem to care. Maybe what Sony needs is to have their noses rubbed in it, and then the might actually put some effort in it.
This complete indifference to security is just stupid.
Some things never change (Score:2)
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If attacking is too easy, even semi-competent cretins like these can get in. Hence the need for a company like Sony to spend some tiny fraction of their income on security. Apparently, they are far too greedy and stupid for that.
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These cretins aren't getting in, they're just DDOSing. The other folks got in, but they weren't cretins and clearly knew what the fuck they were doing.
Which doesn't excuse Sony's apparent poor security, but you should be technically competent enough to know that a DDOS isn't the same as an intrusion and there's far less you can do about a DDOS than an intrusion.
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