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NEWS > GAMES > SONY PRAISES HACKERS AFTER GETTING NETWORK BACK ONLINE
SONY PRAISES HACKERS AFTER GETTING NETWORK BACK ONLINE
June 16 2011
Tokyo, Japan – For about a month fans of the Sony PlayStation were not a happy bunch. The network that supports their online play had been invaded by a group of hackers. Sensitive personal information had been stolen and players were left alone, in 
the lurch, with a company who was less than forthcoming with details. That invasion, probably the biggest internet security breach in history, was much more than an inconvenience to a group of gamers, it was a clarion call for all companies and individuals engaged in any type of online activity.
Eventually Sony was able to get the network back online and, with enhanced security measures, perhaps prevented any future invasions from occurring. The company has also made a great effort to win back the trust of gamers who, beyond being annoyed, were quite justifiably outraged at the ease with which hackers stole their personal data. Eventually, this event will fade into a distant memory. Gamers will go back to games and the internet world will go back to business as usual. Eventually, this story will only be told as a history lesson, memorialized by slideshows on tech websites in a decade or so. For most people, the story is however. For Sony however, the tale is very much still a potent tale, one mixed with international intrigue, human failure, and a whole lot of money all of which makes one Sony executives praise of the hackers who took down the network all the more confusing.
“As far as those activities go, they’re smart, they’re very very smart, they’re some kind of geniuses,” said Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment 
Worldwide Studio on an IGN podcast. “We have no idea how or who they are going to attack, so we should always be prepared…but I have confidence in our network team.”
Sony has not suffered any further invasions since the network was restored. Other gaming companies however have been attacked despite a number of arrests around the world.
“A lot of people in the public dismissed this story. They thought that it was just a bunch of nerds complaining about not being able to play games, made the jokes about getting out in the sun, but it is much bigger than that. This is a network run by one of the biggest companies in the world and it has invaded, attacked, and things like credit card numbers were stolen. Aside from the challenges that those thefts provide, the fact that a major company would incur a major incursion like this is quite concerning,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “And then to see a Sony executive come out and praise them, well that’s just a little strange. I’m sure all those people who have started to see strange charges on their credit cards wouldn’t really think of these guys as geniuses, and most certainly wouldn’t come out and praise them like that.”
Yoshida apparently was deeply involved in restoring the network, but reportedly tried to discourage certain safety protocols while it was being rebuilt.
“There has been speculation that some of this simply could not have been done 
without
some inside help. It is entirely possible, given these statements, that that help could
have come from a very high level. It would be quite scandal to have an executive involved in this type of attack but he does seem to be overly defensive of people who are essentially common criminals, ones who attacked his company,” continued Hawthorne. “Perhaps the bigger problem isn’t the vulnerability of the network, but the vulnerability of the executives. I think it would be perfectly reasonable to analyze Yoshida’s bank accounts and personal activities. If he has had any sudden influxes of cash, well I’m sure that could be easily tracked to these geniuses.”
Neither Sony nor Yoshida had any comment.
Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent
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