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Wednesday the Internet hacktivist collective known as Anonymous pledged to end a series of crippling DDoS attacks on Sony's PlayStation 3 web sites. Nevertheless, the cyber attack on Sony continues. Friday Anonymous successfully took down the Sony Careers web site: http://www.sonycareers.com (http://www.sonycareers.com).
Earlier this week Anonymous was credited with numerous successful attacks on PlayStation.com, the PlayStation store and the PlayStation Network. However, Wednesday evening those claiming to represent Anonymous announced they would halt attacks on PS3 web sites out of respect for gamers who were being inconvenienced and unable to play.
While the attacks on PS3 related sites have apparently ceased, attacks on Sony have not, despite Sony seeking outside help (http://www.windows7newsinfo.com/smf/index.php/topic,16159.0.html) to squelch the attacks.
Sony has also apparently signed on with Prolexic (http://www.prolexic.com/), a DDoS mitigation service that can scrub incoming traffic or employ other tricks to make sites harder to take down.
However, given Friday's successful operation, Anonymous is apparently enjoying some success, despite Sony's countermeasures. From the relevant Realtime Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/search/%23opsony#search?q=%23opsony):
Anonymous attacks like the ones plaguing Sony are conducted via a series of modified LOICs (Low Orbit Ion Cannons) used to execute DDoS attacks. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are an orchestrated attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users.
Sony, perhaps trying to put on a brave face, claims that the recent DDoS attacks have been "underewhelming" Ars Technia reports a Sony source characterized the attacks as little more than "an annoyance."
Yet any publicity directing attention to Sony's legal assault of George 'Geohot' Hotz is bad publicity. Geohot's jailbreaking exploits are now legendary, the guy has become a cyber hero. And Sony is in the process of making him an Internet martyr.
In addition, the fact that Sony asked for the personal information of people who viewed Hotz's video demonstrations of the PS3 jailbreaking on YouTube and visited his web site is a distinct turn off. Sony's attempt to violate individual privacy, and suppress freedom of information, is simply abhorrent to most people.
No doubt Sony is hoping Anonymous gets bored and moves on to another target, another operation, before public outrage grows.
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