In the beginning, a hacker by the name of GeoHotz, found a rootkey that enabled him to create homebrew applications to allow additional software to be installed as the user saw fit and install games straight to the hard drive amongst other things. Now though, Sony caught wind of this and so the battle commenced.
It was only last month that the judge has ruled in favor of Sony and granted them a restraining order against GeoHotz to prevent any further damage being done to their console (and perhaps their reputation) though now, in the latest round of trials involving the PlayStation 3 manufacturer and the hacker, Sony have been given the go ahead to subpoena GeoHotz.
What this allows them to do is gain valuable access to the IP addresses (provided by Mr Hotz’ web provider – Bluehost) of all visitors to geohot.com from January 2009 to the present day. In addition to this, Sony will also be able to view the server logs and any other information on the computers that have downloaded files let alone accessed the site in question.
This isn’t all though, perhaps seen a little bullish by some, Sony apparently also want to see blog posts, videos and twitter feeds relating to the PS3 hack. Again, many have thrown scorn in Sony’s direction due to their tenacity to put right the wrong that was committed, yet others have shouted out in support of the PS3 manufacturer as they attempt to rectify the situation.
Obviously, the easy thing to say would be that if Sony had done a better job of securing the PS3 with the approriate firewalls etc, then all this would not have come to pass. Even after issuing an update for the console soon after the original hack came to light, hackers still found their way around it. That said, the trial will stand as a testament to any would be hackers to slowly back away. Either that or the completley opposite would happen instead.
Is this ‘a bull in a china shop’ scenario with regards to Sony’s actions or are you in support of how the case is being handled?
Let us know what you think.
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