Earlier then expected this week

This weeks whine is bought to you by the letters L.U.L.Z.S.E.C


I'm sure the majority of you will have seen the 'little' escapades that this hacker group have got up to over the past few weeks. Apart from the obvious Sony and now Nintendo hacks they have also managed to get into an American news website and publish a false story on tupac still being alive (It was over 12 hours before anyone managed to notice this story may have been a little DailyFailish), but not before plenty of other news organisations had run with it. They also managed to use a clever bit of social engineering to trick an internet security company into revealing that they would be willing to pay for their opponents sites and systems to be hacked.


So why am I talking about it?


Lulzsec posted on their site after the Sony hack the usual self congratulatory note about what they had done and what they had taken. But what stood out for me was what they said about Sony.

'why do you continue to trust a company that shows such disregard for your personal data?'


Personally I think its quite a pertinent question to be asking. I know the website they hacked (Sony Pictures) isn't PSN, it isn't directly a gaming website or anything like that. But it did make me think that a companies values on everything from corporate responsibility to the contracts it offers staff run through the ENTIRE company. That also means security an more importantly personal data security standards are generally standardised across an entire company. Which means if Sony Pictures was hacked and found to contain unencrypted personal data with no password protection, what's to say other sections of the company don't have the same lax standards? How would we know until they were hacked?


I'm in two minds about how to treat this group, on the one hand I see them as criminals because what they are doing is illegal, however you dress it up they are breaking the law. They are breaking into systems and stealing data and risking damage to that system. As something of an amateur web designer I know I'd be mightily p*ssed if I found some group had broken into my website and defaced it or stolen data from it.


But on the other hand, Lulzsec are managing to expose some pretty dire (In the case of Sony Pictures) or not so dire (Nintendo) web security standards. So actually I'm looking at them as a cross between some internet vigilante group/Robin Hood type organisation that is determined to give some very large companies that should know better a massive kick up the backside. In the case of Nintendo they admitted that what they had managed to get was secure and didn't contain any personal information, and even admitted they were impressed with the level of protection. In the case of Sony they exposed some seriously lax attitudes to real peoples personal details. Although I don't agree with then publishing this personal data on the web I can't knock them for showing just how arrogant some companies have become.


So what's the solution?


Well hopefully these recent hacks will give Sony (As if it needed it) a reminder that peoples personal data should be kept under lock and key, they may also remind other companies that the internet is not a free and safe environment to operate in and that security standards need to improve across the entire internet. These recent hacks may also force governments into some knee-jerk response by maybe introducing tougher penalties for being caught doing this sort of thing. Although I'd much prefer if they introduced tougher penalties for losing personal data on the web so companies wouldn't have to go through the pain of joining the Lulzboat before they did something about our data.


Bit of a difficult one to agree on I'm sure this week. On the one side I'm sure we all have some pretty ill feeling towards hackers in general for the fact that PSN is only now one month on in a position to start being called an online system again. But on the other hand having it pointed out to me how incompetent the protection in place for our personal data is with some companies is a massive wake up call.


Thoughts?

Said it from day one.

Hackers can suck my balls.

Robin Hood was all about taking from the rich and giving to the poor. These hackers are taking people's personal data and posting it for all to see in the name of "spreading awareness". There's nothing Robin Hoodish about these guys, only hoodish, and they need to be treated like the hoods they are.

this year will be know as the year of the Hacker

but i expect firms will start bringing in stronger defences

what do you think of finger print scans as a standard password template

vocal passwords

passwords with GPS tech to cheek the pass word is coming from the right city

Bill goat - I think finger print scans and vocal recognition are both great ideas. But I think the cost is to prohibitive for the man on the street at the minute.

My question would be. Why should it be down to the consumer I.e me and you, to pay for extra protection?

We all invest in companies on the understanding that they will protect our details and not disclose our information without our prior consent. When they fail with that duty of care they should be punished for it. Regardless of whether it was an internal fault or hackers.

Although I can't help but feel Sony have been punished enough for their mistakes.

Also Robin Hood was still classed as a criminal. I know he did the whole rob the rich to feed the poor thing and these hackers ain't exactly donating to the poor but the principle is the same I think. These guys are robbing the arrogant or incompetent to raise awareness. I agree with you though about putting the personal details online. I think they'd have received more support if they had just told people what they had done.

The only way you could say Robin Hood was like LULZSEC would be if Robin Hood stole from the rich and then went round to the poor and dropkicked them in the face and run off laughing.

This, pretty much. It doesn't matter how incompetent Sony is, stealing people's personal info doesn't hurt Sony NEARLY as much as it does the customers.

As far as I'm concerned, LulSec can go fuck themselves. Yes, Sony had lapse internal security. That's what penetration testing, and proper security reviews are for. Whistleblowing if the reviews don't get done.

What LulSec did was criminal, and with absolutely zero benefit to the average user (You can guarantee that PS+ and free games were an afterthought, and done for positive spin, instead of actual compensation), and should be treated as such. Yes, Sony have their part to play, but there are the proper authorities for that, instead of a group of fucking childish idiots declaring themselves the "internet police".

Fuck Lulsec.

The intentions are good...partially. I don't agree with further data loss but they do make a good point about Sony's security policies. But why go all the way and steal data? If they want to whistleblow, why not get into their system and show the world they can? As Smokey said, data theft hurts the customer the most.

Smokey why you hatin' on da hood bruv? You no gangsta?

I just had to keep riding that train to the end of the track.

Real gangsta all day.