Sony Says It Is Investigating PSN Attacks, Will Take Appropriate Measures

Sony has announced that it is looking for the source of attacks that have targeted both its official websites for the PlayStation brand and the PlayStation Network service and that it aims to make sure that the effects are eliminated as soon as possible.

A statement from Sony reads: “We are currently investigating, including the possibility of targeted behavior of an outside party.”

It goes on to say, “If this is indeed caused by such an act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service. Our engineers are working to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers' continued support.”

At the beginning of the week, the Internet-based group known as Anonymous has announced that it was targeting Sony and the PlayStation brand specifically as part of its Operation Payback effort, aiming to make it hard for the company to operate in the coming weeks.

The reason given was the legal assault that Sony has launched on George Hotz, aka Geohot, and other computer hackers that were involved in the penetration of the security system of the PlayStation 3 home gaming console.

Sony has sought to eliminate information linked to the hack from the Internet and it is prosecuting the hackers for their action.

Anonymous says that the video games company is using heavy handed tactics and that it is limiting free speech and using its financial power to eliminate those who fight for the freedom of information.

The main method of attack employed by Anonymous is the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, an application that is simple to use and allows any user to voluntarily make his computer part of a botnet which then launches Distributed Denial of Service attacks.

Anonymous seems to be widening its efforts to target medium and high-level Sony executives.