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Sony Reportedly Is Using Cyber-Attacks To Keep Leaked Files From Spreading

HughPickens.com writes Lily Hay Newman reports at Slate that Sony is counterhacking to keep its leaked files from spreading across torrent sites. According to Recode, Sony is using hundreds of computers in Asia to execute a denial of service attack on sites where its pilfered data is available, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Sony used a similar approach in the early 2000s working with an anti-piracy firm called MediaDefender, when illegal file sharing exploded. The firm populated file-sharing networks with decoy files labeled with the names of such popular movies as "Spider-Man," to entice users to spend hours downloading an empty file. "Using counterattacks to contain leaks and deal with malicious hackers has been gaining legitimacy," writes Newman. "Some cybersecurity experts even feel that the Second Amendment can be interpreted as applying to 'cyber arms'."

2 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No real evidence... by Khyber · · Score: 4, Informative

    "No real evidence"

    Anyone with half a brain can use map.ipviking.com and watch the shit happen. There's your evidence.

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    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  2. Re:Is SONY breaking the law with this "defense"? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't think they are actually DDOS'ing servers as TFS claims. They are using a "bad seed" attack on Bittorrent, which is where they run modified Bittorrent clients that claim to be seeding the stolen data but actually just return /dev/random. Of course the receiver notices that the checksum is wrong and discards the data, but if there are enough bad seeds in a swarm it can make getting a complete set of data quite difficult.

    Some US anti-piracy companies used to do it a few years ago, but the trackers quickly banned all their IP addresses and they gave up.

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    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC