The White Stripes – Dog Eat Dog (live AC/DC cover)

http://bit.ly/kbTrDN

And I can’t say I have much sympathy for Sony to begin with, considering the rootkit scandal and their repeated failure to fix their own very broken information security procedures.

But– LulzSec completely lost me when they published the user info they swiped online. Why punish the innocent users for the incompetency of Sony? Now these poor people are even *more* at risk for identity theft, etc. than they originally were from Sony’s malfeasance. If you, or someone you cared about, had ever been a victim of identity theft or credit hijacking, you wouldn’t be cheering this a$$hat move. It can take years to straighten out identity theft and it can thoroughly mess with people’s lives.

Nope, my sympathies are with the true victims, the users. LulzSec gets no love from me.

Their point was already proven when they hacked into Sony.

Also what’s the point of hacking onto all of PBS for only ONE episode of ONE show that put Wikileaks in a negative light?

Hacking a Public Funded Educational TV Station’s website; Really??!!

It seems that these guys think they’re doing a Public service, but they’re really not. They’re just vigilantes trying to justify a hobby.

Also, I know all these analogies get tiring but let me offer another one:
LulzSec is like the new neighbors that justify buying guns because they live in an “unsafe neighborhood”; It’d be safer if they moved out.

I’m still boggling that the various Sony silos still haven’t bothered to self-check their web presence for exploits. You’d think that would be job #2 after the latest breach.

While not exactly moral, it seems fitting that Sony should get a taste of its own medicine. These corporate guys are just profit driven dick heads. They won’t even “get it” from this break-in. They’ll just consider it a cost of doing business.

This lackadaisical approach to ethics is more wide spread than just the entertainment industry. Recently the FDA announced that they would begin CRIMINAL PROSECUTION of pharmaceutical company executives in an attempt to get their corporations to obey the rules. Previously, the pharma companies just interpreted FDA fines and penalties (however big) as simply a cost of doing business.

It would be nice to see some other corporate executives rot behind bars! Start with Wall St CEOs and expand from there.

The negligence of their sys admins and by extension the company’s management has put their customers at risk, and their shareholder’s value at risk. The companies management is also subject to criminal and civil penalties, for being negligent.

You don’t have to condone the actions of hackers to condemn the negligence of the corporation. Besides… condemning the actions of hackers is a pointless exercise. They don’t care.. they aren’t concerned with your values.

For the record, I’m totally happy with Lulzsec for being funny, and making such information public. Most hackers don’t deface and publish, as that ruins the value of the information, cuts off access, and makes law enforcement involvement more likely.

Not to get too straw-man, but just as in cases of rape where the victim is wearing skimpy clothing, the victim is not “asking for it”. Nor did the unsuspecting people who signed up for $2 off coupons deserve to have their shit stolen.

It’s a crime, and whether it took 5 minutes or 5 years to break in, it’s still wrong and these scriptkiddies belong in jail.

Maybe they could go hook up with the guys who hacked Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and L-3 Communication. Those guys are doing some serious work that could really change things.

They’ve also got black helicopters and some extremely long prison sentences waiting for them.

“Lul.” :P

when do we hit brain tissue?

Meanwhile, an electronics warranty provider, SquareTrade, actually surveyed their records of over 5,000 Xbox 360s and found a ~24% failure rate. That’s from a company that actually handles thousands of console units, not from asking a bunch of gamers to be honest about whether or not their Xbox 360 died. Is that a high failure rate? Absolutely. Is it even remotely close to 60%? Not hardly. For comparison, SquareTrade reported a ~10% failure rate for PS3s.

But those numbers aside, I think comparing the reaction of Microsoft and Sony to high failure rates is in order. What did Microsoft do? They retroactively extended the Xbox 360 warranty to 3 years and allowed thousands of Xbox 360 owners to get their machine repaired free of charge. What did Sony do? They blamed it on user error and charged $100+ to replace the “damaged” units.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go with the company that admits they screwed up and offers to replace their defective product for free, rather than the company that blames it on me and wants to charge me to replace their defective product.

And Sony’s attempt to copy protect CDs was seven years ago. Lulz’s mom was probably still making him a bag lunch back then. He couldn’t possibly claim that makes his industrial sabotage a-ok.

Not to get too straw-man, but just as in cases of rape where the victim is wearing skimpy clothing, the victim is not “asking for it”.

But Sony isn’t the victim. This is more a case of your babysitter leaving your toddler in the car while she does her shopping.

Like what? National security policy?

A corporation is a corporation. If Sony is getting hacked, then maybe they and everyone else will tighten up their security.

Perhaps if enough military contractors get hacked they would learn that any connection to the outside world is not to be trusted or assumed secure.

I don’t care whether it’s your babysitter’s negligence of watching your toddler or Sony not keeping your bike secured, the fact of the matter is, both the person responsible for your possession/child AND the one doing the stealing/kidnapping are BOTH at fault. I mean, is it okay for one to kidnap or steal if it’s made easy for them on behalf of someone else’s negligence? Of course not.

Now depending on the circumstances, one will have to decide who is more at fault.