Has sony been hacked 2013

Millions of PlayStation gamers were affected by the attack on Sony. Notably, this is not the first time Sony has been targeted by hackers, and it might not even be the most damaging incident.

In , Sony's PlayStation network was attacked by hackers who stole personal information about millions of PlayStation gamers and took the network down for weeks. This attack was motivated by anger about Sony's lawsuit against an American hacker who attempted to reverse-engineer the PlayStation 3 to allow users to play third-party games not authorized by Sony.

Critics have argued that Sony has taken a lax approach to online security. They pointed out, for example, that the company laid off two security workers just weeks before the attacks. And security expert Chester Wisniewski told Gizmodo that the hackers' efforts in were made easier by Sony's flat-footed response.

They'd exploit a vulnerability in one Sony office, then use the same attack days later in another part of the world. The hackers' efforts in were made easier by Sony's flat-footed response. Last month's attack makes it clear that Sony still hasn't fully locked down its network. Yet it's hard to know whether this means that Sony has particularly lax security practices — or if it just happens to be the favorite target of hackers.

Hardening a corporate network as large as Sony's is really difficult, and even a company that takes every precaution may still be vulnerable to a sufficiently determined and talented attacker. In his view "the level of sophistication" of last month's attack was "extremely high. First and foremost, lots of companies should be investing more in network security.

Companies like Sony tend to under-invest in locking down their networks because it seems like a needless expense until disaster strikes. Cleaning up the mess from this latest attack will cost Sony millions; hopefully that will inspire other large companies to hire additional security experts. Second, companies should make sure they're well-prepared to respond to attacks.

For example, making regular backups can allow a company to recover in the event that hackers delete important data. Finally, corporate executives should bear in mind that their decisions might be unexpectedly exposed to the light of day. If you're a senior executive at a big company, it's a good idea to avoid sending overly embarrassing emails or having embarrassingly lopsided pay scales.

The FBI is still investigating. In the past, the perpetrators of major attacks have often been apprehended. Meanwhile, journalists will continue to pore through the leaked documents. A huge amount of data has been released already, and much of it hasn't been carefully analyzed. There might be more data coming out in the future. We don't know if any major scoops are still hidden in that vast haystack. Update: Since this article was published, I've added information about the "movie of terrorism" message, Aaron Sorkin's New York Times op-ed, and Sony's call for journalists to delete the stolen files.

I've also changed the article to reflect growing evidence that North Korea was behind the attacks. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding.

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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. The Sony hack: how it happened, who is responsible, and what we've learned. By Timothy B. Share this story Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share All sharing options Share All sharing options for: The Sony hack: how it happened, who is responsible, and what we've learned. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email.

What happened to Sony? Someone claiming to be a former Sony employee posted this screenshot, which allegedly shows the message that appeared on Sony employees' computer screens: Sony's network was down for days as administrators struggled to repair the damage.

Some people have blamed North Korea for the attacks. Were they responsible? And the terrorism threat got Sony to drop the film? What have we learned from the leaked Sony documents? The news comes in the form of two tweets, the first of which shows an unintelligible string of code with the caption "Another one bites the dust" for the uninitiated.

Fail0verflow later responded to that tweet with an explanation, writing, "We received all of the symmetric PS5 root keys. If you dig hard enough, you can find them all in software, even the per-console root key!

Sony has made no statement about the situation as of yet. While Sony strongly discourages users from jailbreaking their devices, the issue with the PS3 was the public broadcast of the jailbreaking procedure, as well as the publication of the PS3 root keys, rather than the fact that it had been completed.

Nonetheless, Sony will most certainly want to know exactly what Fail0verflow did to gain access to that information so that it can avoid it in the future. Fail0verflow also jailbroke the PS4, allowing it to run Linux and play a modded version of Pokemon Emerald shortly after its release. Lizard Squad is alleged to have sent huge amounts of data towards specific IP addresses, overloading servers and blocking out legitimate traffic. What did Lizard squad hack? Explicit celebrity photos. Once they claimed to have access, they threatened to release nude photos in exchange for bitcoins.

Why did Anonymous attack Sony? How did Lizard squad get caught? In October , Buchta was arrested and charged in a criminal complaint with launching a wide range of attacks over a two-year period, including shutting down the web networks of gaming companies and initiating so-called phone-bombing schemes that inundated victims with harassing phone calls.

Cody Kretsinger, a hacker affiliated with LulzSec, has been sentenced to a yearlong prison term for his involvement in the hacks waged against Sony in Upon his release, a US District Judge in Los Angeles has also ordered Kretsinger to home detention and 1, hours of community service. In , the U. The hackers involved claim to have taken more than terabytes of data from Sony, but that claim has never been confirmed. The attack was conducted using malware.

Several Sony-related Twitter accounts were also taken over.