Sony a Sole Nominee for Most Epic FAIL Pwnie Award

August 2, 2011 -

Later this week in Las Vegas the hacking experts and security researchers will converge on Las Vegas for the annual Black Hat conference, and when they are done discussing hacking techniques and security breaches, they'll hand out awards for the best and worst security called the "Pwnie Awards." Sony is a leading contender for one particular award this year - for obvious reasons.

Awards include such categories as Best Server-Side Bug, Best Client-Side Bug, Best Privilege Escalation Bug, Most Innovative Research, Best Song, and the unflattering award for Lamest Vendor Response. Nominees for the latter award include Novell, Magix and RSA. Of particular note is the sole nominee for "Pwnie for Most Epic FAIL" - all Sony. Here's the nomination note from the Pwnie awards site:

Pwnie for Most Epic FAIL

Sometimes giving 110% just makes your FAIL that much more epic. And what use would the Internet be if it wasn't there to document this FAIL for all time?

This award is to honor a person or company's spectacularly epic FAIL. And the nominees are: - Sony
After Fail0verflow and GeoHot published how to jailbreak the PS3, Sony got a bit miffed. Apparently unfamiliar with how the Internet works and how difficult it is to remove the piss from a swimming pool, Sony proceeded to try erase the information from the Internet and sue GeoHot et al. into oblivion. Needless to say, this was about as successful as the MiniDisc.

- Sony
Speaking of piss in a swimming pool, that just happened to be how well Sony protected their Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) users' account info and roughly 25 to 77 million account details were stolen by unknown hackers. That metaphor makes just about no sense at all, but you get the point: FAIL.

- Sony
Sony is definitely good at one thing: keeping the hits coming and their fans entertained. Oh wait, did we say Sony? We meant LulzSec. I guess that counts as another FAIL for Sony.

- Sony
After learning the hard way that their PlayStation Network was about as porous as air, Sony had to shut it down for over two months to rebuild it from scratch. In doing so, they made everyone from your 8-year old cousin to your barber learn about the importance of security. Hooray for us, sorry Sony shareholders.

- Sony
Noticing a pattern here? But wait, it gets better. Sony might have been able to better repel the multitude of attacks if they hadn't just recently laid off a significant number of their network security team. Great timing, guys.

Also of note is the "Pwnie for Epic 0wnage," which nominates Lulz Security for hacking "everyone." From the description:

- LulzSec for hacking everyone

LulzSec provided many Lulz for all the hackers and security professionals around the world. They have attacked Fox News, PBS, Nintendo, pron.com, the NHS, Infraguard, the US senate, Bethesda, Minecraft, League of Legends, The Escapist magazine, EVE online, the CIA, The Times, The Sun; all the while generating a media fiasco and evading law enforcement.

Sometimes it's not an honor to simply be nominated, let alone win an award that has the term "Epic Fail" in it. Winners will be announced later this week.

Source: PC Magazine

Comments

Re: Sony a Sole Nominee for Most Epic FAIL Pwnie Award

Submitted by Austin from Oregon on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 20:40.

It amazes me that this exists. I get examining hacking from a security standpoint, but this conference seems to support and congratulate cybercrime offenders. Is there also an awards conference for famous burglars? Or a biggest win for embezzlement?

I'm honestly not offended by its presence, we do countdowns of murderers on the Investigative Discovery channel, it just amazes me that something like this exists.

-Austin from Oregon

Feel free to check out my blog.

Re: Sony a Sole Nominee for Most Epic FAIL Pwnie Award

Submitted by SeanB on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 23:53.

"Awards include such categories as Best Server-Side Bug, Best Client-Side Bug, Best Privilege Escalation Bug, Most Innovative Research, Best Song, and the unflattering award for Lamest Vendor Response."

Can you please tell me which of these awards "support and congratulate cybercrime offenders"?

These awards poke fun at security and tech firms which do a poor job at doing what they need to do, similar to the razzies which poke fun at horrible movies.

Care to elaborate?

Re: Sony a Sole Nominee for Most Epic FAIL Pwnie Award

Submitted by Austin from Oregon on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 00:12.

"Pwnie for Epic 0wnage - Lulsec for hacking everyone.

LulzSec provided many Lulz for all the hackers and security professionals around the world. They have attacked Fox News, PBS, Nintendo, pron.com, the NHS, Infraguard, the US senate, Bethesda, Minecraft, League of Legends, The Escapist magazine, EVE online, the CIA, The Times, The Sun; all the while generating a media fiasco and evading law enforcement."

Hacking and releasing login information all the while "evading law enforcement" seems pretty clear that they support the crimes lulsec has committed.

-Austin from Oregon

Feel free to check out my blog.

Re: Sony a Sole Nominee for Most Epic FAIL Pwnie Award

Submitted by DorthLous on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 06:34.

Lulzsec actions were unique and incredibly sustained. They had to acknowledge them in some way and since the whole ceremony is very tongue-in-the-cheek, this seems quite sensible a way for them to do so.

Re: Sony a Sole Nominee for Most Epic FAIL Pwnie Award

Submitted by Austin from Oregon on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 11:29.

Which I get, like I said. Not offended, just suprised.

-Austin from Oregon

Feel free to check out my blog.

 
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Wonderkarp: dont fool yourself, Technogeek. Remember Mass Effect 3? How about the ferver against Phil Fish?10/19/2014 - 10:18am
MechaTama31: None of which is the fault or responsibility of the people who are not trolling, harassing, threatening, doxxing, etc. So why is their opinion hostage to the people who are?10/19/2014 - 10:06am
Technogeek: If the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am
Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm
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Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm
Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm
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ZippyDSMlee: Wonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm
MaskedPixelante: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm
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Matthew Wilson: while he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm
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