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Suspected Sony hackers arrested in Spain

by Jef Reahard on Jun 10th 2011 11:00AM

Culture, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous

If you've been wondering when (or whether) authorities would be bringing some of the Sony PlayStation hackers to justice, the New York Times has a brief report that you'll want to check out. Three hackers were recently arrested by Spanish police in the cities of Almeria, Barcelona, and Valencia, all of them with suspected connections to the attacks that took the PlayStation Network offline last April as well as cyber assaults on Spanish banks and government websites.

The Spanish National Police claim to have "dismantled the local leadership of the shadowy international network of computer hackers known as Anonymous," though the Times article casts doubt on whether or not the three individuals arrested were solely responsible for the Sony brouhaha.

The cyber shenanigans will end up costing Sony somewhere in the neighborhood of $173 million due to damages, IT spending, legal fees, lost sales, and expenses related to customer win-back programs.

Source: NY Times

Tags: anonymous, culture, hacker-arrests, hackers, hacking, Miscellaneous, mmo-industry, ny-times, PlayStation, Playstation3, ps3, security, soe, sony, Sony-Computer-Entertainment, sony-hack, Sony-Online-Entertainment

Reader Comments (33)

As I predicted now let the selling out and crying for their Mums begin!

Why don't I believe this claim?

@(Unverified)

If you can not trust something like the 'Spanish National Police' who can you trust?

These guys cover their tracks pretty good ... I would be surprised if one cell has all that much info on any other cell.

@Mikkhail

How do you know how well they cover their tracks? You're in MI6 or the CIA? It's nonsensical statements like yours that make me cringe. These guys are amateurs, and they'll get caught like amateurs do.

Real hackers aren't targeting the Playstation network lol. They're after state and government secrets. Grannie's credit card is of insignificant value as a risk target in comparison.

The Chinese hacking into Google? Now that's real anarchy.

@suicideking89

You have pretty thin skin if my comments make you cringe lolololol.

I feel sorry for you.

While I certainly feel for Sony and definitely don't like seeing anyone get hacked, they really should have had better security. Some of that loss is money that should have been spent on having a secure network in the first place. They risked our private data and got burned. As much as I don't want to blame the victim here, because that's what Sony is, I have trouble sympathizing with a company that partook in highly risky security practices.

@delphinius81

I don't think people are sympathizing with Sony. I think the majority do at least partially blame them for lax security.

But this article is about the hackers. I don't think these guys hacked to prove a point. The repeated hacking to me seems malicious and posting the information publicly was just cruel.

Ok, so why were they released? I care for Sony because it hurts the people of Japan who I have a ton of respect for.

"The Spanish National Police claim to have 'dismantled the local leadership of the shadowy international network of computer hackers known as Anonymous,'"

Dammit, guys, five minutes of research online would tell you what Anonymous actually is. Five minutes. You're the freaking police.

@Puremallace

Because Anonymous is totally a monolithic organisation that recruits carefully and has a central authority that mandates and condones all actions taken in its name. Oh, wait, no. That's completely wrong.

Oh gods. Cerberus is what Anonymous becomes in the future. The bigotry, the flagrant disregard for law or ethics, the cell-based structure, the political idealist factions who disavow the self-interested and psychotic miscreant fringes, the totally ineffectual self-proclaimed leadership, the tech-savvy nerdiness. It all fits. It all horrifyingly fits.

I still dont believe it was Anon that was behind it. I mean, the hackers were probably in Anon but I dont think they hacked Sony for Anon. I think they just went rogue and hacked Sony, and left that note so they would suspect Anon for doing it.

Anon wouldnt attack like this and take personal information from people. Its kinda what Anon is against, DRD for example.

Anon raids are decided in IRC chats were they suggest who to raid and if anyone want that then they would vote for it and the more votes the more participants will join.
This attack was just waaaaaaay different from what Anon is doing.

@Quanginni

Everyone is in anon. You, me, everyone. You know how easy it is to be in it? By just saying you are in it. There's no initiation, no application. You just say "I'm in Anonymous". That's it. If I go out and donate 1,000 dollars in the name of Anonymous the group had as much to do with my donating 1,000 dollars as they do with these hackers.

@Suplyndmnd

Here. Listen to this guy. You won't find any comment closer to the actual truth.

@Suplyndmnd

Not me, I'm not in Anon....so not everyone :)

This seems like an anti-climax. I was hoping secret government agents were responsible. Or perhaps Microsoft and Nintendo in an evil alliance. Or even space aliens.

@Jade Effect
nope ... just nerds ;)

@Jade Effect Or at least my grandmother. Who died ten years ago. That would be one hell of a surprise!

Just read the story over at Kotaku and wonder if the picture of the police with the mask is from their press conference. If so, I am curious if the mask was recovered from the raids or just place on the table as a selling point that it was anonymous.

I am always suspicious of law enforcement press conferences.

@Puremallace

You obviously know nothing about Anon

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Suspected Sony hackers arrested in Spain

Reader Comments (33)

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:16AM Dunraven said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:17AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:51AM tk421242 said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:23AM Mikkhail said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:46AM suicideking89 said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:56AM Mikkhail said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:29AM delphinius81 said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:44AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:46AM Lateris said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:51AM Irem said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 11:51AM JuliusSeizure said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 12:00PM Quanginni said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 12:24PM Suplyndmnd said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 4:45PM Apokaliptik said

Posted: Jun 11th 2011 11:40PM Protoavis said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 12:05PM Jade Effect said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 12:11PM Mikkhail said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 7:49PM PaterFrog said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 12:05PM tk421242 said

Posted: Jun 10th 2011 12:19PM (Unverified) said

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