Sony’s servers may have been taken down using Amazon’s servers according to Bloomberg.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg claims Amazon’s ‘Amazon Web Services’ servers may have been used to attack Sony’s online presence. AWS is a cloud computing platform which was accessed using a fake account, which has since been closed.
Sony’s 77+ million PlayStation Network users have been unable to use the service for weeks since the company discovered unauthorized access to personal data via its systems and took them offline. Both PSN and Qriocity have been offline since last month, with Sony seemingly blaming hacking group Anonymous for the intrusions. Since then Sony Online Entertainment’s servers have also been the subject of attacks.
While Anonymous outright denied the claims, it’s difficult to see which other groups have the expertise and resources needed to pull off an attack of this magnitude.
For their part, Sony is continuing to strengthen their security systems before bringing their services back online and are currently looking into taking legal action against whoever caused the outages.
While Amazon was not the target of any hacking attempts they may not be immune from the after effects, with many questioning the wisdom of cloud computing.
Even so, the role of Amazon Web Services is likely to call attention to concerns some businesses have voiced over the security of computing services delivered via others’ remote servers, referred to as cloud computing.
Late last night, Sony pushed out a new software update 3.61 for its PS3 console in preparation for the return of its PlayStation Network service. Since then, the service is said to have been restored in all United States and Canada, with worldwide restoration is still in process.
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