Anonymous Denies Involvement In PSN Outage

Hacker collective Anonymous has denied any involvement in the recent theft of personal information and credit card data from PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment's Station.com. Last month, the group announced its intention to attack Sony websites in retaliation for the company's legal actions against PlayStation 3 hackers George "GeoHot" Hotz and Alexander "Graf_Chokolo" Egorenkov. However, a few days later the group explained that it was suspending its attacks on the PlayStation Network in an effort to avoid inconveniencing users. Yesterday, SCEA president Kaz Hirai presented evidence the hacker group Anonymous might be behind the breach in Sony servers that exposed users' personal data, explaining that "the intruders had planted a file on one of our Sony Online Entertainment servers named 'Anonymous' with the words 'We are Legion.'" In a press release, the group has now said it is not responsible for the PSN outage, noting, "Anonymous has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft." "Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities," it continued. "We are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards." The group instead pointed the finger at Sony, saying, "There is no corporation in existence [that] will choose the truth when lies are more convenient." The statement added, "If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card theft is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our 'leadership' does not condone credit card theft."