Anonymous Denies Responsibility for Playstation Hack

Online anti-censorship collective Anonymous has released a statement denying its involvement with the loss of customer details from Sony’s Playstation network, following Sony’s claim that evidence points to the group’s involvement.

“Let’s be clear, we are legion, but it wasn’t us. You are incompetent Sony,” wrote Anonymous in the statement.

The rebuttal came after Sony Computer Entertainment chief in the US Kazuo Hirai associated Anonymous with the Playstation data breach. According to Hirai, “the intruders had planted a file named ‘Anonymous’ on one of those servers, a file containing the statement ‘We are Legion’,” which is a part of the group’s slogan.

However, Sony has yet to officially identify the individual(s) responsible for the cyber attack, which has reportedly compromised the details of millions of online gamers, and includes some credit card information.

Anonymous: it wasn’t us

Shortly after the Playstation incident, stolen credit card details are said to be up for sale on hacker forums, fetching prices of up to $100,000 (£60,000).

According to Sony CEO Howard Stringer, however, there is no confirmed evidence that any credit card or personal information has been misused, while the company continues to “monitor the situation closely”.

Meanwhile, Anonymous pointed out it has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft.

“Whoever broke into Sony’s servers to steal the credit card info and left a document blaming Anonymous clearly wanted Anonymous to be blamed for the most significant digital theft in history,” wrote the anti-censorship group in its statement.

“No one who is actually associated with our movement would do something that would prompt a massive law enforcement response.”

An apology from Sony CEO

With over 100 million users’ sensitive details compromised, Sony has put the Playstation Network offline for more than two weeks.

Describing it as “a frustrating time,” Stringer issued a letter of apology on the Playstation blog.

“As a company we – and I – apologise for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack. Under the leadership of Kazuo Hirai, we have teams working around the clock and around the world to restore your access to those services as quickly, and as safely, as possible,” he wrote.

Sony is working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the world to track down those responsible. According to the CEO, the company will restore the service to the networks “in the coming days”.