Sony's troubles and Megacorps Options

[Bigity]

So this deal with Sony having the PSN service hacked has me wondering how much if any megacorps are responsible for that kind of thing in SR.

Say you pay Ares a monthly service for cybergun firmware updates/patches, and some decker hacks the info that you have a cybergun or something.


Well, bad example maybe but imagine some legal situation. Say a celebrity with a penile implant.

[CanRay]

You mean like the Nanotat on your face suddenly gets hacked and starts shifting into all the different positions in the Kama Sutra?

[CanRay]

Actually, I had thought of a major problem with exactly what you're suggesting.

Read the items on Page 331 of SR4A and see if something doesn't pop up immediately as a really bad idea. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/vegm.gif)

[ravensmuse]

Huh. I've been wondering if anyone was going to talk about this on here. I've been following the story since it broke a few weeks ago - when Penny Arcade did this comic, and I started digging around to see what was going on.

(The fact that PA is now selling a shirt with that on it is hilarious in its own way)

Basically, the PSN network has been down for two weeks due to teh HACKERZ! And teh stealinz'! Which, well, is actually the truth. What Sony is trying to downplay is the fact that people's personal information and credit card information may have (many signs are pointing to did) been compromised, and it took them a week to alert anyone to the fact.

We start to see comparisons to megacorps now.

Sony is trying to blame it on Anonymous as a retributive attack for the settled Geohot lawsuit. Anonymous has actually said, "uh, no dude, we have nothing to do with it."

Other people in the industry are theorizing another possible motive: the removal of the Other OS feature on older Ps3s.

Or they could just be jerk data thieves. That's a good one too.

Aside from the massive fraud and personal credit leak is the fact that this hack has laid Sony's security network bare; literally, once you got past the first initial hurdle, everything you could possibly want - personal information like your name, address, age, sex, etc, along with your credit card and bank info - was right there for anyone to snag, in handy .txt format. Supposedly. That claim comes from a anonymous hacker group (not Anonymous) that bragged about the scheme in an IRC chatroom.

Now Sony is scrambling to not only recover their network security (which will only be back in a lessened form until possibly the end of this month) they're also trying to recover lost consumer goodwill. By...giving you free access to their music and entertainment service for a month, and possibly a free (crappy) game. All of which will be taken away once the month is over. Also important to mention is that e3 is next month, and man will Sony have egg on their face then...

tl;dr in Shadowrun terms:

Megacorporation A wanted to release a hot new commlink for the masses complete with a huge, personal network for users to utilize and explore. However, they needed to get it out before Megacorporation B did and stole their thunder. So they installed what looked like a huge security wall around their network and declared it safe. However, once a group of hackers - being hackers - started poking around in the network, they figured out that the security wall was essentially nothing more than a wooden fence with a "keep out" sign on it and did what hackers do best.

Look at everything I just wrote up there and tell me it isn't a Shadowrun campaign.

[CanRay]

Or you could hack the sourcecode for this and put it up on public matrix sites.

[Bigity]

I guess the megacorp Sony was still following the ole chokepoint design of matrix system security.

[ravensmuse]

So, now Sony's whining to the House of Representatives that they found conclusive proof that Anonymous hacked their servers...

[CanRay]

*Cough*Bulldrek*Cough*

I'm sorry, what?

[ravensmuse]

Why, it's almost as though they were taking advantage of a hacker group's anonymity to misdirect people from the fact that they got hacked, had their security discovered to be bogus, and then didn't tell their customers for a week! Crazy sauce, amirite?

[CanRay]

They start with that Rootkit, now this...

[Blog]

Seriously... a text file with a name on it as their evidence someone is the culprit....

When I had my technomancer I always took great pleasure in making any *major* attack I did look like an inside job.

[Dreadlord]

When I had my technomancer I always took great pleasure in making any *major* attack I did look like an inside job.

Ha! That is hilarious! (Writes down idea for future Hacker NPC plotline)

[Blog]

Ha! That is hilarious! (Writes down idea for future Hacker NPC plotline)

Glad to help. To elaborate this specific job was the following.

Some fancy art show and someone wanted a specific piece of art from it. So we took it and made it look like it was a done by the owner in an attempt to collect the insurance. Included them covering most of their tracks too. It was a new exhibit so they had just purchased a lot of extra insurance too!

[CanRay]

Back to Sony's issues... How about the FAIL that is their compensation suggestion? A month free of a service I never wanted in the first place, and MAYBE a free $5 game?

Man, AZT PR could do much better spin control half-passed out, high on company drugs, and slotting "Neil The Ork Barbarian".

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Back to Sony's issues... How about the FAIL that is their compensation suggestion? A month free of a service I never wanted in the first place, and MAYBE a free $5 game?

Man, AZT PR could do much better spin control half-passed out, high on company drugs, and slotting "Neil The Ork Barbarian".

Yeah, that does seem odd. Total Failure on their part.

[Daddy's Litt...]

They claim annoymous left an electronic calling card, the hackers group is claiming they were framed to cover the incompetance of the corp. This is getting so SR we should just post news links from the BBC here.

The problems is the hackers group claims it could not be them because their members would never committ a crime but since they are loosely orgnaized, like herding cats, it is impossible to say one of their number didn't suddenly think "What a cool idea." Or that criminals haven't infiltrated them to learn new tricks.

[CanRay]

Just because it might have been some of the members, it doesn't mean it's the group itself.

Being anarchistic, however, it's really hard to tell what the group is doing, however, even officially. But they tend to have reasons for their actions as a whole, and haven't put forward any for hacking Sony.

And, frankly, I'd believe the group of anti-social anarchists over Sony after the DRM BS they're pulled in the past. That is pure spin doctoring, and a poor job of it as well.

Also, they're facing major lawsuits in the future. In Canada, there's a major one coming up in Ontario (and I'm watching for one happening in my own province) that wishes to get Sony to pay for a Credit Check and Two-Years Identity Insurance for everyone affected in the province named in the legal action. Trying to have "Evidence" that it was an "Elite Hacker Group that there was no defense of" might buy them points with a Judge who doesn't know his head from his hoop when it comes to computer security or digital rights laws.

[longbowrocks]

Ooh, keep us posted on that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[ravensmuse]

Here's the reason I think this is nothing more than Sony trying to throw blame off of themselves - Anonymous said they didn't do it.

I know, I know, it's crazy to listen to the 4chan-spawned hellions, but that's exactly why I believe them. Anonymous is entirely fueled by attention. They pick high profile, "scummy" organizations and groups to hack, and then they make a whole lot of noise about what they're planning on doing. I mean, c'mon, their most recent proclamation was that they were going for Iran next (and wrangling with Jester, but that's an entirely different post).

So here's two questions for you to ask yourself: why would Anonymous not say a damn word about hacking the PSN network, and why would they right away say, "we didn't do it!"? It's a little questionable to me.

Not to mention the fact that they left...a .txt file. That says, "We Are Legion". Again, not Anonymous' style. It would have been something more prolific, like a big ol' Anonymous image, or LOLSONY or something along those lines.

Also working against Sony: Anonymous doesn't do it for money. They do it for teh lulz. So why would they take all of that personal information?

None of it adds up at all, but people are ignorant enough (and Anonymous is, er, anonymous enough) to believe such a thing. Which is alternately kind of sad, and funny.

[CanRay]

Also, having worked from a Public Relations point of view, "People just don't do the research, man. It's like, they believe whatever someone with an expensive haircut and perfect teeth tell them."

Which is why Tech Support is never going away, and why it'll always be a burn-out job.

[TheOOB]

So, now Sony's whining to the House of Representatives that they found conclusive proof that Anonymous hacked their servers...

Isn't anonymous a decentralized group who spends most their time harassing people who abuse cats(and the church of Scientology), and thus not an actual entity you can blame things on? Isn't blaming something on "Anonymous" the same as saying "We have no idea who did this, but want to sound cool?"

[CanRay]

More along the lines of, "Hey, we heard about this hacker group when the Westboro Baptist Church tried to bait them, and they sound like the perfect villains to pin the blame on, rather than admit our own faults and have to deal with all the legal issues coming our way."

[TheOOB]

More along the lines of, "Hey, we heard about this hacker group when the Westboro Baptist Church tried to bait them, and they sound like the perfect villains to pin the blame on, rather than admit our own faults and have to deal with all the legal issues coming our way."

I especially like how a .txt fire with three words that anyone could have written is any kind of proof. For the record, if I pulled off a major hack, I would leave evidence throwing the trail off of myself.

[longbowrocks]

Doesn't matter. No one has ever managed to light a .txt fire before anyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[ravensmuse]

Isn't anonymous a decentralized group who spends most their time harassing people who abuse cats(and the church of Scientology), and thus not an actual entity you can blame things on? Isn't blaming something on "Anonymous" the same as saying "We have no idea who did this, but want to sound cool?"

The wiki page is actually kind of informative. Who knew?

Essentially they just started as a bunch of kids on /b/ and some other...less than savory locations on the internet with lots of anger and no focus. They did stuff like track down those fucks that hurt that cat, yes, but they also used their collective power to hack into Facebooks and Photobuckets for porn. So there's that.

Whatever it was about that Tom Cruise Scientology video though, just kind of catalyzed them, and turned them from "faceless kids with no real goal" into Anonymous. And now they're free on the internet.

It's kind of scary and kind of awesome at the same time.