Anonymous ‘suspends’ Sony attacks

The cyberwar declared on Sony by online activists Anonymous has been temporarily suspended, the group has confirmed.

Sony yesterday admitted for the first time that revert outages to both its range of websites and PSN were caused by hostile actions.

"We are currently investigating, including the possibility of targeted behaviour of an outside party," the company told IGN.

"If this is indeed caused by such an act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service."

Seemingly as a direct response, Anonymous has now announced in a statement that it never intended to target customers – in fact, it argues it is fighting their cause.

"During the last fewdays, Anonymous has been targeting Sony for their outrageous treatmentof not only PS3 users and jailbreakers, but also of the general public," the statement reads."Their propagandaregardingjailbreaking implies that it encouragespiracy andtherebymakes people lose their jobs, whereasjailbreakingactually just means you are making YOUR device do what it should do.

"The fact that their litigationdemanded information oneveryonewhohad viewed the material,was completely unacceptable.The fact thatthe privacy of individuals can be violated, simply for accessing information, and legal action can be taken for doing something with something you own, are steps far beyond the line.

"Anonymous decided it could not allow this to stand.If jailbreaking a phone for use of legal (unsigned) apps is found legal, why would this be any different for the Geohot case, seeing as Geohot explicitly states he does not support piracy?

"Anonymousis not attacking the PSN at this time.Sony’s official position is that the PSN is undergoing maintenance.We realise that targeting the PSN is not a good idea.We have therefore temporarily suspended our action, until a method is found that will not severely impact Sony customers.

"Anonymous is on your side, standingup for your rights. Weare not aiming to attack customers of Sony.Thisattack is aimed solely at Sony, and we will tryour bestto notaffect the gamers,as thiswould defeat the purpose ofouractions.If we did inconvenience users, please know that this was not our goal.

"Thisoperation is a response to Sony’s attempt todeprive their customers of productsthey boughtand therefore own, wholly and completely.Anonymous will not attempt to fight this by following the exact same course of action.We have plenty of tricks up our sleeves."