FBI investigates Playstation Network Hacks

By Johnathan Davis | May 12 2011 10:28 AM

What began as a nuisance is turning into a full-blown criminal investigation as the FBI looks into the hacker group allegedly responsible that may have breached Sony's Playstation network.

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether Anonymous members were involved in a massive data breach at Sony's online gaming network last month.

That network was compromised by hackers last month, exposing the personal details of an unprecedented 77 million users.

Security professionals, who say they are working in a voluntary capacity, have forwarded chat logs and internet addresses of alleged Anonymous members to the FBI to aid investigation.

These experts said they had fielded questions from the FBI about their operations. The FBI and Sony declined to comment.

Sony said it would take at least a few more days to restore service to its beleaguered online PlayStation Network, but failed to offer a solid date.

For weeks Sony has been in the crosshairs on digital vigilantes, forcing the company to shut down several services and issue public apologies and reparations to customers affected.

The attacks also led to the leak of over 10 million credit cards.

The origins spur from a lawsuit brought against a hardware Hacker George Hotz, who for months have been posting exploits of the Playstation 3 system onto his personal website.

In perusing Hotz and those who gained access to his information, Sony teamed with Internet Service Providers, Paypal and even YouTube to gain access to the IP addresses of users who viewed the content.

That move became a rallying cry for hackers to organize and take aim at the Japanese giant, decrying what it saw to be gross violations of digital privacy.

One group, calling it self Anonymous, said that the move was just the beginning and that it would not forgive the company for its privacy invasion.

Where the judicial system has failed, Anonymous will persevere, by standing up for the rights of everyone, not just those who dared to challenge these corporations, the group said on April 14, calling its members to action.

While the group did try to take down the network by flooding Sony servers with requests, it denies it stole the data.