Anonymous claims that they are seriously not behind PSNgate

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

Is that sweat rolling down behind those V for Vendatta face masks? The entity that used to personify defiance in the face of whatever the public thinks of them all of the sudden cares. A lot.

anonbig1 Anonymous claims that they are seriously not behind PSNgate

From day one they have claimed that they were not responsible for the hacking of Sony’s database and theft of countless uses’ personal information (last I checked, PSN is STILL offline; I thought it was supposed to go back on, albeit just a little).

Now, as some might recall, they were responsible for taking down the Network a few weeks ago for a little bit, as a form of retaliation against Sony persecuting hacker George Hotz and his jailbreaking efforts. But then those efforts were subsided, due to the fact that they felt that it was unfairly punishing the user base, who ultimately has nothing to do with Sony’s chicanery.

So in that sense, them exploiting PSN’s flawed security… and reaping everyone’s personal info… does go against their mantra. As silly as it sounds, the group has managed to establish a moral center of sorts. Them helping Iranian protesters share and spread information via the internet during a time great political strife as the elections were going down, is definitely one of their more noble examples. They seem to go after entities that hurt the little guy, and since PSNgame has mostly hurt said folks… they didn’t do it, right?

Well, we don’t know that. Given how Anonymous is still an ultimately nebulous organization, the best theory is how it could somehow splinter some faction, one that has gone “rouge” as silly as it sounds. The bottom line is how the hive mind is getting pretty nervous by the heat generated by the controversy. The other day, Sony faced Congress, to talk about the mess they have on their hands, and basically pointed their finger at the internet hate machine. Perhaps they’re nervous about the Federal Government on their case? Given how they still can’t fix baseball, after repeated attempts, they have nothing to worry about.

Still, the end result has been a rash of very un-Anonymous actions, like a press release stating their innocence, or them banning anyone in their IRC channels that even so much casually mentioning an initiative against Sony will get that person booted. All YouTube videos in which they address previous grievances against Sony have also mysterious vanished (as you might have noticed in the link I provided above).

One interesting theory is how they don’t want to piss off the one contingency that has basically supported them since day one: nerds. They see the good that they do (which means I must be one then) and are the ones most directly affected by Sony hackers, since all nerds have PlayStation 3s, right? Just like me! And if they piss off all the dorks, they will have absolutely no one on the outside speaking up for them.

So the answer is simple Anonymous: help Sony. Help them find out who the hackers are, the ones responsible. It was also recently disclosed that Sony has hired a rag-tag band of cyber sleuths and experts to sniff the trouble makers out, but we all know that won’t work. You guys rule the internet! Time to flex those powers and fix some wrongs… which aren’t exactly your fault, but people think it’s you, so time to save your name and also be the hero while the chance is there. Besides, thy enemy’s enemy is my enemy, and thy enemy sorta becomes either my friend or a respected rival, or whatever.

Anonymous Fears Nerd Backlash From PlayStation Hack [Gawker]

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