In the old days, the answer would be simple: some kid did it. But today’s underground is more complicated — a slew of competing players with different agendas and techniques. Here’s a quick rundown on the likely suspects.
Anonymous
While noncriminal pranks are their stock in trade, the griefers of Anonymous have been on a hacktivism spree of late, staging distributed denial-of-service attacks against the corporate enemies of WikiLeaks, then famously cracking the computer security firm HBGary Federal and exposing the shady plotting of its CEO. Coincidentally, Anonymous declared Sony as its latest protest target right around the time of the intrusion. They were unhappy with Sony’s lawsuit against PlayStation 3 rooter George Hotz, and unsatisfied by the settlement deal reached between Hotz and the company this month.
But spokespeople for Anonymous have denied any role in the PlayStation Network hack, and the whole flavor of the hack just isn’t Anonymous’ style: they’ve pulled intrusions in the past, but computer crime isn’t their mainstay, and a stealth run through the network of a corporate giant is decidedly short on lulz. Verdict: Probably innocent.
China
Chinese hackers have been responsible for some of the most sophisticated known intrusions in recent years — low-and-slow attacks against defense contractors, human rights groups and Silicon Valley bigwigs like Google. The attackers typically get in by hitting a single employee with an exploit, and then carefully expand through the network until they’ve found what they’re looking for — generally trade secrets, source code, or intelligence.
A list of 77 million names, dates of birth and passwords could be useful as the raw material for future attacks, but aside from that, Sony’s gaming infrastructure is not a logical target for this bunch. You also wouldn’t expect a professional Chinese intrusion to be detected so quickly. Verdict: Innocent. Read More
