Sony's Rapture?

Since suffering an attack on the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services -- leading to users' data being leaked and PSN being taken down for several weeks -- Sony has been targeted by hackers several more times. Just recently, more than $1,000 in virtual points were stolen when Sony's ISP was broken into and a phishing site was discovered on Sony's servers. The attacks on Sony don't appear to be done, either.

Over the weekend, PBS' website was hacked and a story was posted claiming rapper Tupac is still alive. It was apparently perpetrated by LulzSec, the same group that took responsibility for an attack on Sony BMG's Japanese website a little more than a week ago. It hasn't said it was responsible for the attack on PSN.

That same group said on Twitter this past Friday, "We're working on another Sony operation. We've condensed all our excited tweets into this one: this is the beginning of the end for Sony." A follow-up tweet yesterday said, "#Sownage (Sony + Ownage) Phase 1 will begin within the next day. We may have a pre-game show for you folks though. Stay tuned." As of this writing, no further updates related to Sony have been posted.

The wave of attacks on Sony is believed to be in response to Sony's treatment of hacker George "GeoHot" Hotz, who was responsible in part for the PlayStation 3's root key being discovered. Not only did Sony sue Hotz, it tried to have the case tried in California, rather than New Jersey, and some believed it was using unfair tactics intended to balloon his legal fees. The two sides have since settled the case.

Microsoft, by contrast, recently announced it would work with a 14-year-old Irish boy responsible for phishing attempts on Xbox Live. Microsoft GM Paul Rellis said during a keynote it would work with him to "develop his talent for legitimate purposes." That move might very well have been made in light of what Sony's gone through.

There's no indication at this point that any further attacks on Sony -- assuming they do indeed take place -- would target the PlayStation Network. But it's a worrying thought after millions of users had their personal information stolen just over a month ago, complimentary identity theft protection or not.

I'm all for more hackings! ^^

What can i say, they brought it on themselves.

Hackers are targeting gamers which is an incredibly stupid thing to do.

People get phished all the time, I wouldn't call that hacking the PSN really.

Everyone is saying that they're hacking the PSN but I see no proof as of yet. The group that hacked PBS have promised they'd take it down over the next few days and it's still up.

Since Sony rolled out updates to the network it hasn't gone down so I wouldn't call every declaration of "Lulz we hacked Sony" an actual hacking.

Until I see the network go down again I won't believe some random attention seeking hackers. Most true hackers (Like Trolls) aren't obvious about it anyway, they'll just take down the network without anyone knowing rather than tweeting about it (Hackers using Twitter is the most hilarious thing I've ever heard).

What can i say, they brought it on themselves.

Sometimes i wonder where all these clever/smart irish ppl are, living here all my life and i've yet to meet one.

That's pretty stupid to put a malware to steal personal information on a server you hacked into when you can get all the information you want because you already have admin privileges lol.

Also a malware would get noticed WAY faster than a security breach.

For one: Do they REALLY THINK they'll take down a multi billion company just by hacking PSN? They will be caught eventually and depending on the law of the land they're on, they can get into deep ***.

Two: This is hurting their fellow gamers equally as it is hurting Sony, they do understand this right?

Three: Sony needs to up their game and start headhunting these ***. The Government needs to get off thier *** and start doing something about this or else these 14 year old kids will have millions of Credit Card Information that they can use for whatever they want.

Lastly: I say off with all of their heads!

Probably not Sony entirely, but they've already seriously damaged PS3, and turned people away from any PS4. And, PS3 already was lagging behind xbox and wii. I am pretty sure they're doing plenty of damage. As far as hurting other gamers goes, I would say that whoever is doing this is already anti Sony - so what do they care?

What can i say, they brought it on themselves.

if they left malware to target users by directly putting it on sony's servers, then yes it would be considered that they got hacked. while I'll agree that sony did bring it on themselves, the users didn't and there's plenty of other ways to attack sony without making the users suffer.

They taunted the hackers after the first wave of DDoS attacks by saying it was only a minor annoyance and they would just wait till they get bored.

They taunted the hackers after the first wave of DDoS attacks by saying it was only a minor annoyance and they would just wait till they get bored.

They taunted the hackers after the first wave of DDoS attacks by saying it was only a minor annoyance and they would just wait till they get bored.