So I'm sure we've all enjoyed the lovely fiasco that was the extreme attack by hackers on Sony's PSN network back in April. I know that my husband Ron and I thoroughly enjoyed all that worrying about whether or not personal information had been stolen. Note the sarcasm. It is quite troubling when you hear about things like this and considering the severity of the security breaches with things like up to 70 million people with their personal data stolen, then it's downright mind boggling. So for the rest of us the hackers pretty much screwed over with their "sticking it to the man" antics, we had to worry about whether or not our credit card information was stolen, if there would be phishing scams in our email, or if someone with a chainsaw and a hockey mask would show up at our house in the middle of the night. That's always a good time for anyone.
Factor in that Sony was hacked again and again and they have a business nightmare on their hands. Once they were back up and running, there were some nice perks for the inconvenience, such as two free downloadable games and 30 days of Playstation Plus Premium for free, and 100 virtual items from a Playstation Home shop. A couple of the games they offered for download were a nice gesture, Infamous and Little Big Planet 2. So it seems they were trying to make amends for the month long wait for their customers as they tried to put out the fires.
Of course Sony had to face the music at E3 this week, and they apologized for the PSN hackings and then they moved on to announce new PS3 titles and show off their next generation handheld, the Playstation Vita. My take on it, was we'll see if they can keep up because the other day, I read of another hacking on the PSN network, but this one was Sony Europe. According to an article I read on the Sophos website, this made the THIRTEENTH attack on Sony. Thirteen attacks is not only ridiculous, that's just sad. It also makes me personally wonder if Sony can keep up and fix the problem, because it is a problem, a BIG one.
Bear in mind, this is just my opinion as a gamer after all, but I have lost a lot of faith with Sony because it's been one misstep after another with them. They're not the giants they once were. It's as if they've gotten too big for their britches as it were and instead of making money, they seem to be losing so much money. At this rate, they need a damn lifeboat.
The embarrassment only gets worse as LulzSecurity has been bragging and claiming the hackings of Sony. Yes, it's the same guys that hacked PBS, the National Health Service, an FBI affiliate in Atlanta, and Nintendo. The FBI one, I can understand a bit because of the Orwellian type laws the government is trying to put forth about internet freedom. What is strange to me is, they claimed they like Nintendo and they told the National Health Service they meant them no harm, just that they wanted to help them fix their tech issues.
Please pardon me as I say, WHAT THE FUCK?! Truly, WHAT THE FUCK?! If someone you didn't know came up to you and punched you square in the face, but then said, "Oh, I don't mean you any harm, I actually like you. I just wanted to help you with your self defense." would you believe them or would you be incredibly angry that this person you don't even know hit you? Remember, be honest. I thought so.
Considering that up to 70 million people had to go through basically what is an incredible amount of stress worrying about identity theft because of these hackers "doing it for the lulz" (Yes, you read that right, they did in fact say that....) how can anyone believe they didn't mean any harm? The fact of the matter is, plain and simple they broke the law when they stole personal information that DID NOT belong to them. It doesn't matter that they did it for fun, because they hate Sony, because they're "trying to help", or because they're trying to prove to themselves that they can. Plain and simple for me, it really pisses me off when someone thinks they are entitled to steal my personal information just to prove they can. It doesn't just make me mad at the corporation, it also makes me quite angry at the lowlife that seems to have nothing better to do other than live in their parents basement with forty-seven cats and steal from innocent people.
Yes, it's cruel of me to say it, but until you've sat there watching your husband check and check and check again to make sure no fraudulent charges have been made because of cyber attacks on a network, then I don't even want to hear about the poor hackers are trying to prove a point. The poor hackers were criminals the very second they not only stole personal information, but then published it not only on their website, but in several emails to the very companies they hacked. It makes them no better than the mighty corporations and government they claim to be fighting. Personally, I think all the 70 million plus people who had to deal with this nonsense should be allowed to punch every single one of them in the face and get to publish their personal information everywhere. It's only fair.
That being said, of course it's up to us to be vigilant, to be responsible for changing our passwords often, and for making sure our personal information is secure, because although hackers like LulzSecurity are claimed to be a grey hat organization, they're not. There is no grey area when innocent people get hurt for the sake of their version of "fun". They are in fact, extremely arrogant and ignorant in thinking that their actions do not have consequences and incredibly foolish if they think that the rest of us are going to consider them heroes. I know I don't. I find them to be quite childish. There are more important things in this world and this life than doing something like this to others just because you can.
As for Sony, I truly hope they can step up and come back from all of this. They need to remember that without their customers, there is no Sony and they could treat them a lot better, especially in the customer service department. They also need to fix the problems with their security breaches and fix them well so this doesn't keep happening or even better, never happens again. I don't know if they'll be able to carry the weight, but I hope they at least try.
