By now you should have heard about the ongoing legal battle between Sony and infamous hacker GeoHot (along with a few other well-known hackers). If you haven't, kindly step out from under your rock and join the rest of us in society.
The case has been in a sort of stalemate since legal proceedings began in early January. Since then, the controversy has caught the eye(s) of "hacktivist" group Anonymous. Their main goal is to promote "internet freedom" and thus feel strongly that Sony should allow users to do what they please with their console once they've bought and paid for it.
Anonymous released this message this morning, a warning shot hinting at what's to come:
This group wasn't kidding, either. Shortly after this message was posted, a number of Sony owned websites were down due to DDOS attacks. Sony.com and PlayStation.com were affected, and Sony has been scrambling to restore things to normal. And as Sony.com went back up, the PlayStation Network goes under fire, with the @AskPlayStation Twitter account playing it down, calling the downtime "sporadic maintenance".
Anonymous isn't done yet. They released a video echoing their earlier statement and warning of further attacks.
Sony has some pretty powerful enemies that they compete with on the consumer level – like Microsoft and Nintendo – but they may have met their most formidable adversary yet with Anonymous.
Shit is hitting the fan so to speak, and we'll keep you posted on any further incidents as they happen.
What the fawkes are you lookin' at?