Sony Retrospective

"We believe that [Sony] first became the subject of attack because we tried to protect our IP, our content, in this case video games." - Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.

He "believes" that's the reason. That's an actual quote from a recent Sony shareholder's meeting. Some schmuck actually said that to PEOPLE WHO OWN STOCK IN SONY!

Wait, that actually makes sense. Think about it for a minute, only complete morons would still have stock in Sony and NOT understand the reasons for the recent attacks. They only PUBLICLY STATED WHY THEY ATTACKED SONY.

"You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of  information." - Anonymous, Hacker Group

Now, I completely disagree with the attack against Sony, but it is FAR from unprovoked. For those of you who aren't aware of the background in all of this, the Sony PlayStation 3 came with a feature called "Other OS", which allowed for the installation of an alternate operating system on the console. This was an important feature for attracting the Open Source community and was considered by many a huge step forward in embracing the idea of an open internet and the ability for PlayStation to be more than just a game console, and become a true "media center".

So, naturally, a few years later, in March of 2010, they removed this feature unannounced through a system update. They offered no explanation, no apology, and nothing in return for this. This upset a few people, one of which is George Hotz, who decided that he was going to re-open the PlayStation 3 to the public.

George succeeded in jailbreaking the PlayStation 3, which opened up everything. This allowed you to install homebrew software on the PlayStation, add alternate operating systems again, and even tweak system settings. The downside is it also opens the system up for piracy and modifications. This, of course, attracted Sony's interest. But instead of realizing that the reasons for doing this were completely driven from their removal of a key feature of their system (despite Hotz saying that), they decided that the jailbreaking was an act of theft and evil.

This resulted in Sony taking Hotz to court, where despite a very similar case regarding jailbreaking being ruled in favor of the individual (vs. Apple over the iPhone jailbreaking), this one was ruled in favor of Sony. Nothing really happened to Hotz, ultimately, other than his stuff being seized. However, this drew the ire of the hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

What happened next I pretty much detailed a few blog posts ago, Sony got hacked, all the personal information got out, et cetera, et cetera.

"...cyber terrorism is now a global force, affecting many more companies than just Sony." - Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.

This statement is exactly the kind of thing that would piss me off as a shareholder. No shit, Sony! If other people are being hacked and their information is being compromised, why in the hell wouldn't you have taken extra security measures on your end? Is your IT security team comprised of lobotomized ostriches? What the fuck!?

Look, this statement is being made as a deflection of blame. Sony clearly feels that because several other people got hacked, it would've happened eventually anyways. Yeah, you guys didn't provoke anyone at all, right? The simple fact is that their decision to take out a bullet-point feature on the system is ultimately what cost me my personal information.

Look, at least admit that it was a dumb idea and that you know that you didn't handle it properly. I mean the decision only targeted the ENTIRE OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY! So, in a market where your major competitor is Microsoft... you guys decide to take out fucking Linux. Yeah, that was TOTALLY warranted.

But, that's not even the icing on the cake.

"...if hackers can hack Citibank, the FBI and the CIA, and yesterday the video game company Electronic Arts, then it's a negative situation that governments may have to resolve." - Howard Stringer, Braying Jackass

My head actually exploded from this. It took HOURS to reassemble myself and get composed enough to write ANYTHING. Hell, I can still see some gray matter on the ceiling, but I'm not getting a ladder to try and get it back. Fuck that noise.

So, Sony feels that the government needs to get involved. Sony wants the government to come in and fix the relatively minor issue of PEOPLE HAVING FREE ACCESS ON THE INTERNET! Are you fucking kidding me? No, I'm serious here. What the hell do you want the government to do? Most cyber attacks happen out of the country. No one can do a damn thing about that, because most countries don't have very effective methods of finding these hackers.

Here's a crazy thought. Maybe, I don't know, YOU SHOULD FUCKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! It's YOUR system, YOU guys fix it! Huh, notice how Microsoft, YOUR MAIN COMPETITOR, hasn't been hit with anything. Could it be because their IT Security budget is higher than the box of Triscuits you use to feed to the ostriches you have on the payroll?

Look, you guys need to work on this and stop trying to deflect the blame. We all lost in this, the least you guys can do is man up and admit some fault here. We all know that it's a different world than it was 15 years ago, where a hacker was viewed as some wizard that threw skulls and shit on your television screen (fuck you, Rafael Moreu). The times keep changing and we need to change with them, and that includes you, Sony.

-Justin