Infamous PlayStation 3 modder George “GeoHot” Hotz has spoken out about thePSN hacking situation, denying responsibility and implying that breaking into the PlayStation Network is a silly thing to do. His main concern, however, is the alleged negligence of Sony, which he blames for the whole issue.
“I’m not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door,”he wrote. “Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony.
“Also, let’s not fault the Sony engineers for this, the same way I do not fault the engineers who designed the BMG rootkit. The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.”
Hotz posits that Sony’s “arrogance and misunderstanding of ownership” put the company at risk, and that it needs to accept the fact that it doesn’t own and control a PS3 once its been sold. He also noted that Gmail, Xbox Live and iTunes have all been hacked without giving away personal details, “Because other companies aren’t crazy.”
