Hackers Attacked Sony Because It Was Trying to Protect Its Content

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer has revealed during a press conference that the recent hacker attack suffered by his company was probably motivated because of Sony's actions while trying to protect its PlayStation 3 console and its content from actual hackers and pirates.

Sony hasn't been going through the best of times, as the Japanese company was forced to take down its PlayStation Network online service after a major hacker attack that saw the personal information of all its 70+ million users fall into the hands of the cyber criminals.

The company got its network back online in May, but things have still been rough for it.

Now, the CEO of Sony, Howard Stringer, has revealed that the likely cause for the attack was that the company tried to protect its content in front of hackers and video game pirates that broke through the security systems of the PlayStation 3.

"We believe that we first became the subject of attack because we tried to protect our IP (intellectual property), our content, in this case videogames," Stringer revealed, via Reuters. "These are our corporate assets, and there are those that don't want us to protect them, they want everything to be free."

The Sony boss, who sidestepped any calls for his resignation, highlighted that plenty of other companies or organizations fell pray to cyber attacks, so he can't be blamed for the whole issue.

"I think you see that cyber terrorism is now a global force, affecting many more companies than just Sony," he said. "If hackers can hack Citibank, the FBI and the CIA, and yesterday the video game company Electronics Arts , then it's a negative situation that governments may have to resolve."

The PlayStation 3 saw its anti-piracy measures circumvented earlier this year, when several hackers managed to create customized versions of its official firmware, which, at first, allowed people to play homebrew applications and even install the Linux operating system on the device, as was possible in the early days of the PS3, but was quickly used for pirates to run illegal copies of actual games.

This, according to Sony, is where all homebrew and hacking attempts lead, so Stringer confirmed that the company would continue to do anything it could in order to secure its PlayStation 3, even if some users might not agree with this.