what strikes me is how differently 'hacking' is viewed today in the mainstream. Try any of that at a company as big as IBM, and you'll likely be rotting in a cell as a suspected cyber terrorist.
ok maybe I exaggerate, but I can't help but think how innocent those times sound in this story.
I couldn't have said it better myself. What I've witnessed is that companies are apt to lie down in favor of the FBI because building up a rapport with the FBI can be a good thing in certain business models. (don't ask).
The DoJ is well-aware of this, I'm sure, and is only too happy to throw its full weight around.
To me, this suggests that corporations have too much power in this country. This explains why the FBI is heavy-handed with their "do not disclose" style issuances to corporations. It isn't so much that the FBI is scared the company will tip someone off, but that people in general will become more knowledgeable about these activities. This poses a risk for companies as proponents of privacy will be very outspoken.
If anything, this is a great argument for why these things SHOULD be public knowledge.
It's also interesting that this utterance by Sony has shifted the whole discussion away from their own security failures.
Sony, in blaming Anonymous, has asked theem to prove a negative -- that they did NOT hack PSN. The onus isn't on anonymous to prove a negative. Sony knows they can't. It's just an effective way to shift focus on this issue away from their failure to protect customer data.