Anonymous threatens Sony, Playstation websites disrupted [Updated]

Sony's ongoing legal action against PlayStation 3 hackers elicited joy from gamers furious about how the January jailbreaking seemingly led to an increase in online cheating. Simultaneously, Sony's litigiousness has angered hacking-sympathizers and a relatively small contingent who actually used the console's 'OtherOS' feature before Sony itself disabled it.

Infamous hacker group Anonymous has proclaimed Sony worthy of its "attention," and possibly launched the first volley today.

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According to a press release, Sony has earned the shadowy group's ire due to its recent anti-hacking policy that has seen the Japan-based company filing suits against George Hotz in the U.S. and Alexander Egorenkov (AKA graf_chokolo) in Europe. "#OpSony" has begun.

"Congratulations, Sony," the statement begins. "You have now received the undivided attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal action against our fellow hackers, GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo, has not only alarmed us, it has been deemed wholly unforgivable."

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The hacker group asserts that Sony "abused the judicial system" as a means to protect its IP -- an obvious allusion to Sony's legal motions asking Google, YouTube and Twitter to hand over the personal information of numerous other hackers and users who had discussed or viewed Hotz's original jailbreaking video.

The message assured the company that its unique brand of justice was coming. And like clockwork, both the official U.S. Playstation site and PlayStation Blog are currently unavailable due to what seems like a DDoS attack. [UPDATE: Both are now back online.]

We reached out to Sony for a comment on the matter and to determine whether or not the sites had been hit with a DDoS attack or were temporarily down for maintenance (or something equally mundane). No official statement has been delivered by the company yet, but this post will be updated if one is issued.

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Anonymous is no stranger to taking down websites run by giant corporations. The group previously hacked security firm HBGary's public website and leaked over 50,000 private emails in the process. Last year it launched "Operation Payback," which targeted both individuals and companies involved with the RIAA.

Reports of an incoming PS3 jailbreak first made the rounds late last year when hacker collective fail0verflow announced it was on the verge of cracking the console and re-enabling homebrew. Not a month later George Hotz published the jailbreak code; SCEAs legal recourse followed soon after.

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