Sony has stated that they dont know who the PSN hackers are, but Spanish police seem to think it is a group of local hackers, who the claim to be the Spanish wing of the hacktivist group Anonymous, here is a quote from the source:
PARIS — The Spanish police said Friday that they had arrested three suspected computer hackers in connection with recent cyberattacks on Sony’s PlayStation network as well as corporate and government Web sites around the world.
Readers’ CommentsIn a statement, the police said that with the arrests, they had dismantled the local leadership of the shadowy international network of computer hackers, called Anonymous, that has claimed responsibility for a wide variety of attacks.
According to the statement, Anonymous is made up of people from various countries organized into cells that share common goals. The activists operate anonymously, but in a coordinated fashion.
One of the “hacktivist” detainees, the police said, had harbored a computer server in an apartment in the northern port city of Gijon, from which the group attacked the Web sites of the Sony PlayStation online gaming store.
It also was used in coordinated cyberattacks against two Spanish banks, BBVA and Bankia, the Italian energy company Enel, as well as government sites in Spain, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, the police said.
The police provided little information about the suspects.
It was not immediately clear if the group had been the sole, or even the main, perpetrator of the recent attacks on Sony. About a dozen Sony Web sites and services around the world have been hacked, with the biggest breaches forcing the Tokyo-based company to shut down its popular PlayStation Network for a month beginning in April.
The company has acknowledged that hackers compromised personal data for tens of millions of user accounts. Earlier this month, a separate hacker collective called Lulz Security said it had breached a Sony Pictures site and released vital source codes.
Sony has estimated that the hacker attacks will cost it at least 14 billion yen, or $173 million, in damages, including information technology spending, legal costs, lower sales and free offers to lure back customers.
Mami Imada, a Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo, said she had no information on the arrests and declined to comment.
The police said members of Anonymous made use of a computer program called LOIC to crash Web sites by flooding them with denial of service attacks.
The arrests follow an investigation that was begun last October, when hackers overwhelmed the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Web site to protest Spanish legislation increasing punishments for illegal downloads.
Among recent attacks, the hackers also brought down the site of the Spanish National Electoral Commission last month before regional and municipal elections.
The movement against the anti-piracy law has been closely linked to the broader youth-led political movement that have occupied Puerta del Sol in Madrid and other city squares since May 15.
These protests have called for a complete overhaul of Spain’s political system — and the laws targeting illegal downloading.
Note:
Above image is a random pic and is not a photograph of the suspected PSN hackers.
06-10-2011
07:51 AM
So they arrested 3 hackers, all this will do is make the other hackers more determined. They can take one server down but anyone can set up another one.
But this shows just how "democratic" "democratic" countries are; corporations' interests are placed well above the interests of the people. The world is corrupt and something needs to be done about it!
06-10-2011
08:00 AM
Lol, do those fking clowns have any idea wtf they on about?
"Sony has estimated that the hacker attacks will cost it at least 14 billion yen, or $173 million, in damages, including information technology spending, legal costs, lower sales and free offers to lure back customers."
Then followed by: "made use of a computer program called LOIC to crash Web sites"
Goes to show the world is ran by brain dead retards.
06-10-2011
08:24 AM
you get what you deserve
06-10-2011
08:28 AM
how is this not for the people? haven't these "hacktivist" done enough to compromise peoples info to the WORLD? where worse ppl can take that info and do rotten things with it? yeah great stick it to the man and **** the general population up the ass is what theyr doing. and dont give the "it shoulda been encrypted or unable to hack or this wouldn't have happened"....im pretty sure a call or email or something to notify them of such possible intrusion can occur and use the info as proof of that instead of post ON A DANM TORRENT!....SMFH
06-10-2011
08:44 AM
Uff, poor guys...
06-10-2011
08:52 AM
Lulzsec Hacked Sony and spread the information not Anonymous, and the Spanish police can GTFO and make me a taco ****ing inbred pigs.
06-10-2011
09:07 AM
Have you even heard of PCI compliance? Here's a link for you https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org...ards/index.php
Note this bit "ensure the safe handling of cardholder information at every step". All companies big an small have to follow this! Sony have broken laws several times and yet you are still standing up for these greedy corporations?!
Sonypictures.com was hacked into by the basic of basics method, a simple sql injection, something any 10 year old can do on their PC! That's how "secure" that server was!
Fact is that the heads of people and the general public like you are shoved so up these corporations arses, or dont gice a **** because it doesnt affect them, that the only way to get you to notice something is to do something like leaking all your data to criminals. This method got the attention of all 100 million+ users and at least make some of them ask just how secure are other companies!
06-10-2011
09:15 AM
ok sans anonymous , arent the rest hacktivists as well ? its just not honorable or sensibly justified. this doesnt look well for hackers, masses will generalize all hackers into one category now, BAD
. Have such Hacktivist not watch STAR WARS?! 
************* [ - Post Merged - ] *************
. this is no robin hood tale.
06-10-2011
09:34 AM
Anonymous tried, they tried to hold protests outside sony centres. And as i've said before it didnt go well cos, predictably, not many actually turned up. But those in London that did ended up soaked with water pistols and had food thrown at them by sony fanboys.
Those fanboys didnt care what sony did as long as they had their psn. However it seemed a criminal organisation did care, they saw sony have weak security and took advantage of it. And now look these fanboys/their parents who pay their bills, and a lot of the general public now do care. They wouldnt listen rationally but they have to this.
I'm glad this happened, not only has it affect sony but the US Congress is now also involved, something anonymous wouldnt have though possible if they did it. And with more sony sites being hacked, Congress is asking more questions and finding that it isnt just sony who do not care about customer data.
I think of this as more like a "wake-up call", something that really needed to happen in order for something to be done about it. If it was done slowly like anonymous would have done it probably would have been ignored or anything that would be done would take a decade to decide upon. but now with the the US Congress asking questions, it should happen a lot faster.
06-10-2011
09:50 AM
06-10-2011
10:00 AM
I am glad to capture those bad hackers. It show justice in our planet
need arrest more hacker around the world.
06-10-2011
10:15 AM
06-10-2011
10:57 AM
You can't prove the DDos attacks were actually done by them.
IP adresses change and
Ever heard of botnets? :3
06-10-2011
10:58 AM
FINALLY MAN!
Its good some are getting caught. It shows that no matter how good the hackers are, they all will get caught sooner or later.
if there is evidence that they hacked PSN, I would be happy to see SONY SUE THE F**K OUT OF THESE PEOPLE!.
This was good news.. :P
06-10-2011
11:10 AM
Yeah right!! LOL of course you did arrest them... i don't know if the new york times are stupid, or the guy who wrote this is stupid...
Sony stated we don't know who the hackers are! they are very good at covering their tracks! we might never find who did it! and sony is inspecting their own network night and day!!
but the police in spain is so much better and without even look at sony's network they find out three hackers that hacked PSN, i don't know if the journalist who wrote this has some sort of mental problem, also of course they had to be Anonymous! cause now every hacker arrested is from anonymous! what are this journalists thinking??
They are a group of hackers that's it, or are you telling me that the pakistan hackers and the indian cyber army that are at war are also anonymous, this journalists better get they facts right!
just cause a hacker said "i hacked psn" the police is suposed to believe it?
and the worst is people believe this crap....
06-10-2011
11:17 AM
So it seems that only spanish ppl have balls to do sth agaisnt this ****.
GJ SPAIN
06-10-2011
11:55 AM
With an unemployment rate of ~20% or so, the Spanish also have a lot of time on their hands. It can explain a lot when you factor in what a situation like that does to social morale.
06-10-2011
12:08 PM
I love coming here everyday but I'm really not sure you should use that pic as it's pretty important news. I thought ps3hax was better than tabloid style. :-(
06-10-2011
12:24 PM
i'm glad they got them...if they wanna hack for the ppl hack a 3.61 and everyone will be happy...sony might not be but who cares
funny thing is i was in spain (pamplona) when psn got hacked...amazing...i bet i was not the spanish police that traced them down...****ing forales are brain dead...pulled me over and keept me in my car for 2 hours to verify if my drivers license is fake...2 hour and after that they sayd its ok ...and it was a legit E.U license...anyway thats off topic
hombre dont hate me...just sayin'
06-10-2011
12:58 PM
It was not anonymous who hacked the PSN servers only Sony websites (thats why they were arrested), this news are wrong...
06-10-2011
01:28 PM
So this article shows no proof of these guys hacking sony, it just paints a bad picture by saying they protest this and do that.
06-10-2011
03:28 PM
And so the saga continues...
I tend to agree here.. This doesn't change nor prove anything really..
06-10-2011
10:05 PM
Denial of service isn't the same as hacking. It seems like anything that cannot be done on an iPad (as well as some things that can be done on an iPad, but not by normal users), and which isn't done on behalf of some giant corporation, is called hacking...they just lump it all together.
In "congressional idiot" terms, calling someone a hacker is like saying that they are skilled...sure, they might be skilled at breaking and entering, but they are much more likely to be skilled at some useful skill like carpentry or medicine. This has been expanded recently, to include anyone who is willing to help a good cause, but whom does not really know what they are doing other than following instructions. Soon "hacker" and "computer user" will be the same thing.
Denial of service is a digital picket line...spain is arresting people across the country for the protests in the streets...and now they are arresting people for protests on the web. Shows what you get for non-violent protests, doesn't it?
06-10-2011
10:33 PM
06-10-2011
11:55 PM
I dont think a loic program has the capability to retrieve that kind of info, also ddos attack isn't even related to this story... Way to pin it on people by putting together words to confuse stupid people...
06-11-2011
09:20 AM
06-11-2011
04:00 PM
these guys will prob get hired by the fbi or something
06-11-2011
04:15 PM
Pobre imbcil troll, ahora ponles culo y sers mucho ms feliz
06-11-2011
04:50 PM
lolol sangrenegrv english only man, and don't forget its not because you write in spanish that other people don't understand.
06-11-2011
05:54 PM
06-11-2011
11:53 PM
06-12-2011
01:39 AM
I think the Spanish police made this arrest to give their ego a good stroking. I mean seriously how the hell did they figure it out when Sony is still scratching it's head
06-12-2011
05:19 AM
oh yeah thats right my name is slim shady & im a part of anonymous along with everyone in spain and hacked sony. i did it with my dope rymes and bean buritous in one hand.
O RLY ??
06-13-2011
11:38 PM
Hey guys, go outside for a walk, it's a beautifull summer out there.....
Oh and that cop got that ASIMOV beard allrighty :D
06-14-2011
01:18 AM