Anonymous vets claim members of the group are likely behind attack on PSN
Two members of Anonymous feel that at least one of its members was behind the attack on Sony, which resulted in the PSN service being brought down and user data being compromised.
Speaking to the Financial Times, one Anonymous member said they saw the technical details of a PSN vulnerability posted in the group's user chat room not long before the intrusion occurred.
“The hacker that did this was supporting OpSony’s movements,” the Anonymous member said regarding the Operation Sony measure which started after the firm decided to sue George Hotz over modifying his PS3.
Another veteran member of Anonymous, which participated in the hack on HBGary Federal and goes by the online alias Kayla, also pointed to a rouge member of the group.
“If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it,” said Kayla. “Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn’t mean Anonymous didn’t do it.”
US law enforcement are currently looking hard in Anonymous' direction as part of the ongoing investigation into the PSN breach, after Sony found a file named Anonymous in its database. Investigators described the group "one of the key targets,” being explored at the moment to the Financial Times.
Anonymous has denied it was responsible as a group for causing the service to be brought down, but many members it was indeed one of its own.
One Anonymous member said: “So it’s Anon’s work. But you can’t blame the whole collective for what one or two guys do. We’re a gathering of Anonymous activists, not some scary organised hacking group. It was uncalled for this early in the fight.”
The hacker went on to claim that extremely few administrator accounts were stolen and distributed by members, and admitted that these could have been used later for data theft.
Barrett Brown, an Anonymous member said these postings could have been intentionally planted by enemies of the group, while another stated that those involved in OpSony started "denying everything when FBI and Homeland security was put on the case...because they were afraid they were going to get caught," before noting that a few "disappeared.”
Anonymous maintains that no credit card information was exposed, nor were any of the over 100 million PSN accounts.
"They had access to their databases, yes, but nothing was downloaded except a few admin accounts," said the group. "Nothing has been exposed, no one is selling anything.”
Anonymous' claim of rogue members comes on the heels of an earlier report which rumors that hackers are ready to strike at Sony again over the weekend.