In a coordinated campaign of denial of service attacks called "OpSony," hacktivist group Anonymous has already started attacking Sony Web sites in retaliation for Sony's lawsuits against PlayStation 3 hackers. Now an Anonymous offshoot that calls itself "SonyRecon" has taken the attacks to the next level, targeting individual Sony employees.
After uncovering information from an OpSony message board, PlayStation Lifestyle revealed that these hackers are working together to gather personal information about "useful targets," including names, telephone numbers, home addresses, email, IP addresses, information about relatives, and more in order to harm these people, likely through fraud.
Sony employees could be attacked in many different ways. Some of the methods are as benign as prank calls to the target on Skype or sending them a large number of empty UPS boxes, but others are more serious. SonyRecon prompts hackers to post ads in the erotic services section of Craigslist or calling an AIDS hotline and asking for positive results for an HIV test to be delivered to the target.
According to PlayStation Lifestyle, SonyRecon's efforts have only started to heat up. However, the site confirmed that the group has already obtained the personal information of Sony employees and their families. In fact, a post on the message board also showed that SonyRecon is specifically looking for information on Sony CEO Howard Stringer and his family.
On Monday, Anonymous took on several Sony sites and rendered the PlayStation Network (PSN) inaccessible for most of the day. On Twitter, PlayStation would not confirm the attacks, but instead said that PSN was undergoing "sporadic maintenance."
At the beginning of the year Sony sued George "GeoHot" Hotz, 23, and Alexander "graf_chokolo" Egorenkov for tinkering with the PlayStation 3 and publishing online their exploits. Sony's actions grabbed the attention of Anonymous, a group known for targeting companies it feels are against rights-free content.
Sony sued Hotz in January for exposing the root key to a PS3, allowing users to develop and play homebrew games. In late February, German police raided the home of Egorenkov, who is best known for reverse-engineering the PS3 and researching security loopholes in the console. Sony later sued Egorenkov for one million euros ($1.4 million) for publishing the findings of his research, known as the "Hypervisor Bible," online.
Using DDoS attacks, Anonymous has previously taken on such targets as Broadcast Music International, former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, the Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Copyright Office, and the Motion Picture Association of America.
It's not a matter of if, but rather a question of who will Anonymous attack next? Last week the group suggested that it might soon target Warner Bros. for its involvement in a trillion-dollar lawsuit against LimeWire.
If you want to know more about Anonymous, see PCMag's analysis of how the movement was born.