Renowned hacker and former Sony target George Hotz (GeoHot) wrote an insightful and interesting blog post on the PlayStation Network security breach. Before he really gets going, he made it clear that he had nothing to do with the attack. Although he’s a proud hacker, he’s not the kind that engages in identity theft. He also feels that Sony spent too much time and money having lawyers go after hackers instead of firming up PSN security. Here’s an excerpt:
To anyone who thinks I was involved in any way with this, I’m not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door. Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony.
Also, let’s not fault the Sony engineers for this, the same way I do not fault the engineers who designed the BMG rootkit. The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.
I highly recommend reading the entire post. There’s lots of great stuff in there and Hotz is in an extremely unique position to provide commentary on Sony.
That was a good read. Thanks Ray
I really don't want this guy to become some martyr for hacker sympathy.
Too late!
::grumble grumble::
I spend more time reading the comments on this fiasco than I do the articles. It's like everyone who "has an opinion" on who is at fault doesn't have a single fact strait in their head. Makes me want to get of the internet till Sony turns PSN back on because all these people, who are refusing to use their brains, are making me seriously doubt the human race as a whole.