Italian police are the latest to make arrests in connection to hacking collective Anonymous, according to reports from the country today.
32 dawn raids were carried out, including one across the border in the Swiss region of Ticino. Following the raids, three people including one minor were arrested.
The raids follow police action in Spain last month, which saw another three suspects arrested in connection with the hack which brought down Sony’s Playstation Network for several weeks. It’s unclear if the Italian arrests relate to the same incident or not, but police are reportedly claiming to have grabbed an alleged “ringleader” going by the nickname of Frey – an Italian 26 year-old living in Switzerland.
TechEye reports a statement from Italian police, which downplays Anonymous’ hacking skills.
Out of all of the current hacker groups, Anonymous is the largest, but is also populated by the least technical people. Some of its members carry out attacks using software downloaded from the Internet and do not carry out the most basic attempts to secure their IP address.
We’re expecting more details of the arrests to emerge throughout the day and we’ll update this story as and when we hear more.
Sony hacked again as attackers target Sony Music Japan. This is getting tiresome.
Just when you couldn’t imagine it getting any worse for Sony, a new wave of attacks have been levelled on the Sony Music Japan website, exposing databases using SQL injection techniques.
NakedSecurity reports that the highlighted databases do not contain sensitive information, with no names, passwords or personally identifiable information thought to have been exposed in the attacks.
However, the attackers, who mock Sony with a note stating “This isn’t a 1337 h4x0r, we just want to embarass Sony some more”, do note that two other databases on the site are vulnerable but it is not known whether they contain sensitive information. Lulz Security takes claim for the breach, the same hackers that targeted Fox.com earlier in the month.
It’s been a tough month for Sony, which first saw its PlayStation Network brought down for weeks after hackers stole sensitive information hosted on the platform. Soon after that, it emerged that a phishing site was found on Sony’s Thailand portal before it attackers managed to breach the company’s Greek website using a similar SQL injection attack.
Sony is reported to have lost $171 million as a result of attacks on its gaming platform, but its reputation could suffer more than its bank balance if events continue to play out as they currently are.
Anonymous successfully taken down http://www.sonypictures.com/ and http://www.sonypictures.co.uk
The Sony PS3 console was "hacked" or more appropriately, jail broken, by iPhone hacker, Geohot. Anonymous managed to reverse engineer his own PlayStation 3 to run home brew applications on it.And then later released the method to the public, through his site, geohot.com
Sony hit Anonymous with a lawsuit and demanded social media sites, including YouTube to hand over IP addresses of people who visited Geohot's social pages/videos.Pay pal have granted access to Sony for them to view Geohot's Pay Pal account. The judge of the case has given permission to Sony to view the IP addresses of everyone who visited geohot.com Sony are also after another group of hackers for the same case.
The PS3 hack which GeoHot released can be compared to the "unlocking" of a phone. i.e. Once you purchase the phone, it's yours, you can do whatever it is you want with it.
Congratulations! You are now receiving the attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal actions against fellow internet citizens, GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo have been deemed an unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom, primary sources of free lulz (and you know how we feel about lulz.)
You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information. Your suppression of this information is motivated by corporate greed and the desire for complete control over the actions of individuals who purchase and use your products, at least when those actions threaten to undermine the corrupt stranglehold you seek to maintain over copywrong, oops, "copyright".
Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been "renting" your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous' rights, you must now be trodden on.
If you disagree with the disciplinary actions against your private parts domains, then we trust you can also understand our motivations for these actions. You own your domains. You paid for them with your own money. Now Anonymous is attacking your private property because we disagree with your actions. And that seems, dare we say it, "wrong." Sound familiar?
Let Anonymous teach you a few important lessons that your mother forgot:
1. Don't do it to someone else if you don't want it to be done to you.
2. Information is free.
3. We own this. Forever.
As for the "judges" and complicit legal entities who have enabled these cowards: You are no better than SONY itself in our eyes and remain guilty of undermining the well-being of the populace and subverting your judicial mandate.
