Anonymous, the hacking organisation that moved in to support WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, by bringing down the operations of several financial organisations, is today urging supporters to black ban Sony, because of their lawsuit against a PS3 hacker.Overnight Anonymous, is alleged to have attacked Sony’s Playstation network bringing down company web sites in Europe and the USA.
Shortly after being hit Sony’s Playstation Network went offline due to what the company called “sporadic maintenance.” It later returned but according to users was unstable.
Insiders claim that Sony is suffering from major denial of service attacks.
At this stage Sony has not acknowledged Anonymous was the cause.
Last year Sony Computer Entertainment, filed a suit against George Hotz, also known as Geohot. Hotz had released a firmware modification that allowed a Sony PlayStation 3 to run other operating systems. Sony had removed that functionality some months before. The suit is still pending.
On the Anonnews site, a press release appeared that says: “You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information.”
Both supporters of George Hotz, the target of the lawsuit, and of Anonymous have objected not just to the idea of the lawsuit but Sony’s approach.
It has not only threatened legal action against anyone posting the jailbreak but has snooped IP addresses and even YouTube account details for thousands of people, even for people simply curious and not actually interested in the hacks.
They have also echoed the view of a countering lawsuit by noting that Sony pulled a bait-and-switch by breaking promises and removing the Other OS feature for people who had already paid for a console years earlier.
Last month Sony claimed that Hotz was fleeing the country when he was simply taking a pre-planned holiday.
