In response to the slew of questions and concerns from customers over the now week-long shutdown of Sony's PlayStation Network following a malicious outside attack by an unknown third party, the company has released a short Q&A about the situation.
Yes, Sony is working with law enforcement in an effort to discern those responsible for the cyber break-in. No, they can't say for sure if users' credit card information was lifted. Most importantly, the company says enhanced security measures will be in place when PSN relaunches sometime next week...maybe.
One question not covered, however, was whether George Hotz had anything to do with the attack. Luckily, the hacker tackled that question on his own blog today.
"I'm not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door," said Hotz. "Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone else's server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony."
Though his blog "geohot got sued" is now a bit misleading in its title (Hotz and Sony recently settled out of court), the famous hacker is unbowed. He may be legally barred from tinkering with Sony products for the rest of his life, but that clearly isn't stopping him from saying what he really feels.
Drawing a stark distinction between hacking and maliciously stealing personal information, Hotz steadfastly defended what he and others like him do: open up hardware for myriad use beyond what was intended by the manufacturer. It was Hotz after all who jailbroke the iPhone, leading to an amended DMCA that protected the process and those who chose to do it from legal recourse.
"To me, a hacker is just somebody with a set of skills; hacker is to computer as plumber is to pipes," explained Hotz. "And the same ethics should apply. If you want to mess with the pipes in your own house, go for it. But don't go breaking into people's houses and messing with their pipes."
Hotz humorously added, "Note that I do not endorse water piracy."
And though Hotz isn't shedding tears for Sony, he certainly empathizes with the 70+ million customers affected in one way or another by the breach. "As a onetime victim of identity theft, I feel for everyone who's data has been stolen," he said.
The NJ hacker admitted he's interested in hearing just how this brazen attack went down -- likely the only common thread shared with Sony.
"To the perpetrator, two things," Hotz said. "You are clearly talented and will have plenty of money (or a jail sentence and bankruptcy) coming to you in the future. Don't be a dick and sell people's information. And I'd love to see a write up on how it all went down. Lord knows we'll never get that from Sony -- noobs probably had the password set to '4' or something. I mean, at least it was randomly generated."
