As mentioned in the earlier post, hacker group Anonymous declared "war" on Sony over the Geohot fiasco.
Now, a splinter group of Anonymous has taken it upon themselves to take things a few steps further by specifically targeting Sony employees, Sony's lawyers and the judge presiding over the case.
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Among those targets is Robert S. Wiesenthal, a group executive at Sony Corp. His marital status, age, address, education and family history have all been discovered and shared among the group, which is also targeting Howard Stringer, chairman, president and CEO of Sony Corp. One user asked on IRC: “No one found ANY info on Stringer’s kids?”
Sony Recon also deems as suitable targets those involved in the PS3 hacking lawsuits currently being brought against George “Geohot” Hotz, Graf Chokolo and up to 100 unnamed members of the fail0verflow group, with Sony Recon founder Randomtask posting to say: “Sony, the judge and Sony’s lawyers are all valid targets.”
Noted PS3 hacker Kakarotoks posted on Twitter to say he had spoken to Randomtask, and was assured that Sony Recon did not intend to carry out any personal attacks on the people whose details they discover, insisting that it was focused on “gathering information that is already publicly available, in the hope of finding something incriminating to help in the lawsuit. Anonymous is against violence or threatening/attacking people. He says nothing illegal is being done."
It's one thing to go after Sony, a faceless company. It's an entirely different matter to begin targeting employees and their innocent families. I don't care if these people are gathering information legally; it's even more unnecessary than attacking Sony and ultimately punishing their paying customers in the name of Geohot. I didn't agree with their methods before...but this is simply deplorable. If the group is so against threatening or attacking individuals, why is this information being gathered in the first place? Stay classy, Anonymous.
Statements by Anonymous are hard to validate until they actually take action. Because it is like a Hive and there are several targets being proposed at one time and then the hive mind kind of agrees to go after one target.
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This is a typical political tactic. It really scares the families and tends to work. It is definitely a brand of terrorism, of putting extreme pressure on people and making them fear for safety and wonder what could happen. Next they may put out phone # and address and then things can take bad turns.
I think this one might be divisive within Anonymous. It doesn't have their usual hallmarks of meaningful objection - whether I agree with it or not - instead it's just pissing and moaning.
Has everyone forgotten that sony wants, or perhaps has already gotten, the personal info of anyone who VISITED geohots webiste? To me this is the same as backing a rabid animal into the corner. Threaten it enough and it will lash back, and given the volitile nature of the people they are fucking with, there is sure to be a lot of penned up nerd rage just waiting to break free. I say let them at each other, sometimes there comes a battle where the enemies are just made for one another.
And before anyone says anything about the innocent workers at sony being targetted, just remember the imperial workforce on the death star argument. Just because you didnt attack anyone personally, you are still a cog in the machine and just as guilty as the next guy.
One last point, how many wars are won decisively by fighting clean? You get in, hit them where it hurts, and prove your point. Whether you like it or not, such is the nature of war, and say whatever you want, but legal procedings are just another form of it, sometimes at its most pure.
Lastly, I wrote this from my phone, so I am sorry in advance for gramatical and spelling errors.
I read the story and the source material. I don't see any violence or threats of violence being done to these people. Nor have I seen any cyber attacks happen to these people. Why are you reporting the investigation of Sony's executives, lawyers, and the judge involved in a lawsuit as if it were an attack?
Personally, I think the hackers are in the wrong here, but a news story that implies that these hackers are going to do harm to the families of Sony employees is just terrible yellow journalism of the worst sort. It makes one party seem guilty for taking an action that they haven't taken (even if they've considered it), AND it tweaks their nose. Punish a bully for a crime he hasn't done and he may become indignant and rebellious enough to actually do it.
I don't read Edge Online for a reason. That's about the worst journalistic ethics I've seen this year.
Though I admit, after Sony went after Paypal records, this seems less insane. There is something poetic when, after an organization goes after an individual's private data, individuals respond by going after an organization's private data.
What do you mean it tends to work? In this case, it will never work. This isn't a private ransom note, these are public threats.
Not going to work.
I mean it works politically. You haven't heard of politicians having their homes picketed, death threats to their family, etc? That's a whole lot of pressure. It's completely immoral but usually people cave under that kind of pressure, which is why they do it.
I read the story and the source material. I don't see any violence or threats of violence being done to these people. Nor have I seen any cyber attacks happen to these people.
That's how Anony works. They simply publicize address, work number, email, home phone, cell, etc., and let the minions fuck with them. Plausible deniability. If you don't know that, then you haven't read up much on Anony. Remember Jessica Slaughte? She was getting death threats, her parents got all manner of housecalls and prank calls, calls at work, things being sent to the house, packages, etc. They tried to get her parents fired from where they work. It's just a mob being set loose after these details are published.
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Originally Posted by bean19
Personally, I think the hackers are in the wrong here, but a news story that implies that these hackers are going to do harm to the families of Sony employees is just terrible yellow journalism of the worst sort.
If a later story reports something actually happening you're going to look awfully silly after this statement :P Why do you think Anon puts those details out at all?
I think this one might be divisive within Anonymous. It doesn't have their usual hallmarks of meaningful objection - whether I agree with it or not - instead it's just pissing and moaning.
Anonymous was never really meaningful...these are the guys that post kiddie porn on Facebook Memorial pages for fun.
oh, and fuck jessie slaughter. fuck her and her fucking family. i'm trying hard to see a more valid target for wrath. just think of anon as this generations "scared straight". except they go after everyone, not just a bunch of whiney middle schoolers that hit their moms.
I mean it works politically. You haven't heard of politicians having their homes picketed, death threats to their family, etc? That's a whole lot of pressure. It's completely immoral but usually people cave under that kind of pressure, which is why they do it.
But this isn't politics. In politics, this is usually the result of an unpopular political opinion. These guys, however, are in the minority.
Besides, if this really worked, all the right wing political commentators would be off the air, because I assure you, they get death threats daily from extremist whackos on the left.
But this isn't politics. In politics, this is usually the result of an unpopular political opinion. These guys, however, are in the minority.
Are you being deliberately dense? It doesn't matter if it's not politics, it's a tactic to achieve change for whatever change you're motivated to achieve. It's an asshole tactic.
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Originally Posted by ElektroDragon
Besides, if this really worked, all the right wing political commentators would be off the air, because I assure you, they get death threats daily from extremist whackos on the left.
They can also afford the security. It's not actually that much different from being famous. But a lot of US Congressman can't afford full time security, and the same is true of many management-types in business.
