The Anonymous hacker collective have hit back at Sony who accused them of being responsible for the company’s recent calamitous leaks of the personal details of up to 100m users of the PlayStation Network (PSN) and Online Entertainment (SOE) systems.
After Sony had claimed that their investigators had discovered a file entitled “Anonymous” containing the words “We are Legion” (part of Anonymous’s slogan) on their compromised computers, the group has issued a 900-word statement telling Sony to stick their accusations where the sun don’t shine.
In the statement, Anonymous insisted that they do not steal credit card data and that their aims are purely political.
Here’s their full statement:
Last month, an unknown party managed to break into Sony’s servers and acquired millions of customer records including credit card numbers. Insomuch as that this incident occurred in the midst of Anonymous’ OpSony, by which participants engaged in several of our standard information war procedures against the corporation and its executives, Sony and other parties have come to blame Anonymous for the heist. Today, in a letter directed to members of Congress involved in an inquiry into the situation, Sony claimed to have discovered a file on its servers, presumably left by the thieves in question, entitled “Anonymous” and containing a fragment of our slogan, “We are Legion”. In response, we would like to raise the following points:
1. Anonymous has never been known to have engaged in credit card theft.
2. Many of our corporate and governmental adversaries, on the other hand, have been known to have lied to the public about Anonymous and about their own activities. HBGary, for instance, was caught lying a number of times to the press, to the public, and to Anonymous itself (in this phone call, for instance), CEO Aaron Barr makes a number of untrue statements regarding the intent of his “research”, claiming for instance that he never tried to sell the information to the FBI when emails acquired soon showed that he had been set to do just that; executive Karen Burke was also caught lying to Bloomberg about having not seen an incriminating email that she had in fact replied to just a few days before]. The US Chamber of Commerce lied about not having seen the criminal proposal created by them for Team Themis; Palantir lied about not having any idea what their employees were up to; Berico publicly denounced a plan that they had actively engaged in creating; etc. There is no corporation in existence will choose the truth when lies are more convenient.
3. To the contrary, Anonymous is an ironically transparent movement that allows reporters in to our operating channels to observe us at work and which has been extraordinarily candid with the press when commenting on our own activities, which is why reporters prefer no talk to us for truthful accounts of the situation rather than fallacious public relations departments of our targets.
4. In the realm of criminal investigation, there is an important aspect of investigations that should never be overlooked. The “modus operandi” of a criminal rarely changes. Whoever did perform the credit card theft did so contrary to the “modus operandi” and intentions of Anonymous. Public support is not gained by stealing credit card info and personal identities, we are trying to fight criminal activities by corporations and governments, not steal credit cards.
5. It should be remembered that several federal contractors such as HBGary and Palantir have been caught planning a variety of unethical and potentially criminal conspiracies by which to discredit the enemies of their clients. This is not a theory – this is a fact that has been reported at great length by dozens of journalists with major publications. Insomuch as that our enemies have either engaged in or planned to engage in false flag efforts, it should not be surprising that mangy of the journalists who have covered us, who know who we are and what motives us – and who have alternatively seen the monstrous behavior of those large and “respectable” firms that are all too happy to throw aside common decency at the behest of such clients as Bank of America and the US Chamber of Commerce – also have their suspicious that some capable party performed this operation as a means by which to do great damage to Anonymous in the public eye. Those who consider such a prospect to be somehow unlikely are advised to read about what was proposed by Team Themis in their efforts to destroy Wikileaks, and should otherwise take a few minutes to learn about COINTELPRO and other admitted practices by the US intelligence community. The fact is that Anontymous has brought a great deal of discomfort to powerful entities such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Palantir, and much of the federal government; the Justice Department in particular is likely happy that our efforts revealed that it was they themselves who recommended the now-discredited “law firm” Hunton & Williams to Bank of America in order that the latter might better be able to fight back against Wikileaks. Al of this is now public record, and those or other entities may have again engaged in unsavory tactics that they are known to have engaged in in the past.
If a legitimate and honest investigation into the credit card is conducted, Anonymous will not be found liable. While we are a distributed and decentralized group, our “leadership” does not condone credit card theft. We are concerned with erosion of privacy and fair use, the spread of corporate feudalism, the abuse of power and the justifications of executives and leaders who believe themselves immune personally and financially for the actions they undertake in the name of corporations and public office.
Anunymous will continue its work in support of transparency and individual liberty; our adversaries will continue their work in support of secrecy and control. The FBI will continue to investigate us for crimes of civil disobedience while continuing to ignore the crimes planned by major corporations which use their services.
We do not forgive, even if others forgive our enemies for those things for which we are attacked.
We do not forget, even if others fail to remember.
We are legion, and will remain so no matter how many of our participants are raided by armed agents of a broken system.
We are Anonymous.
Expect us.
Might have had more impact if they spell checked it.