Sony’s servers have been all over the news recently due to their lack of security, as millions of their PlayStation Network customers’ information was stolen by a group of hackers. Soon after being hacked, Sony attempted to restore its reputation and the PlayStation Network came back online again. However, Sony has failed yet again to protect its customers, as a supposedly different group of hackers has successfully intruded Sony’s network for a second time. Read on for more details on what’s been compromised, as well as some more details on the hackers themselves.

The hacking group known as “Lulzsec,” is the group who claimed responsibility for the most recent attack. Over the past weekend the group had also hacked into PBS.com and posted fake news stories, which further demonstrates their apparent skill level. Lulzsec has been warning of future attacks on Sony for some time, and has developed a plan called “the beginning of the end” for Sony. The plan has even been referred to by the group as “Sownage” or Sony Ownage. Lulzsec has announced that they have broken into the servers again, and now wrote online “We recently broke into SonyPictures.com and compromised over 1,000,000 users’ personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts. Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 ‘music codes’ and 3.5 million ‘music coupons.”

In addition to this they have posted that the actual hacking was not very difficult to complete. All in all, it only took one SQL injection to be allowed access to SonyPictures.com. As if that weren’t enough, over a million customer passwords were being kept in plain text, meaning nothing was encrypted. Lulzsec claims that all they had to do was gain access and take the information. They even went as far as to make an official comment on Sony’s security, saying: “This is disgraceful and insecure: they were asking for it.”

While Sony is desperately fighting to keep it’s head above water, it seems as though operation “Sownage” is in full swing now. Lulzsec’s Twitter does not suggest that they will relent anytime in the near future, as they have asked for any contributions from BitCoin. (BitCoin is a virtual form of currency that people can use safely without being traced.) If you are a Sony customer it is wise to keep a keen eye on suspicious activity on your account and beware of any phishing emails that may appear to be from Sony.

At this rate, Sony is falling, and falling fast. This group of hackers, Lulzsec, is obviously not just a group of computer geeks, but experienced professionals. My only question is, why Sony? Why not Microsoft or any other large technology company? Perhaps the attack on Sony has a more personal reason behind it, or maybe they are just trying to make a point. We may never know, although if they are making a point, they’ve got the world’s attention, so now is as good a time as any.

Why didn’t Sony learn the first time? Will they ever secure their customers’ data properly? Are you going to start migrating toward other companies? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Source: Cnet