Over the last two months, the multi-national Sony Corporation<\/a> has come under a wide range of attacks from an even wider range of attackers. The backstory about what event prompted who to attack and why will make a mediocre made-for-TV movie someday. This article is not going to cover the brief history of hacks; readers can find details elsewhere<\/a>. Other than Steve Ragan and The Tech Herald<\/a>, most recent articles about Sony make vague references to ongoing problems, but do not enumerate the full history. This is likely because the past events, while only 45 days old at most, are convoluted and confusing. The table below should serve to fix that, hopefully giving journalists and security professionals a concrete and clear history.<\/p>\n One thing should be noted; the attacks against Sony are not coordinated<\/strong>, nor are they If anyone… ANYONE<\/strong> at all uses the term “advanced persistent threat” in describing the That said, welcome to the recently coined term, “Sownage”. The state of being thoroughly “owned like Sony is”.<\/p>\n
\nInstead, the following only serves to create an accurate and comprehensive timeline regarding the recent breaches, a cliff notes summary for easy reference.<\/p>\n
\nadvanced<\/em>. Sony has demonstrated they have not implemented what any rational administrator or security professional would consider “the absolute basics”. Storing millions of customer’s personal details and passwords without using any form of encryption is reckless and ridiculous. Even security books from the ’80s were adamant about encrypting passwords at the very least. Several of Sony’s sites have been compromised as a result of basic SQL injection attacks<\/a>, nothing
\nelaborate or complex.<\/p>\n
\nattacks on Sony, please hit them very hard before disregarding them as ignorant charlatans hell-bent on serving their own interests. Given the wide variety of attackers (see below), the attacks on Sony can only be described as an uncoordinated effort at best.<\/p>\n